Pitchers and Catchers report

...Possibly the best four word phrase in the English language. I apologize for the lengthy hiatus but with the terrible weather and my trip to Vegas my schedule has been all out of whack. As for the Vegas trip- I could write about that but I'm guessing my part-time PIC is going to want to discuss that after her trip which is quickly approaching. So for now we'll put that on the back burner. Let's talk baseball.

Ask any of my friends or even partial acquaintances down here in Cincy and they'll all agree that my passion for Cleveland sports is, sadly, unrivaled. If the Browns lost on a Sunday (and they often did) I'd be in a bad mood all day. When a Cavs game is on I'm basically another person. While bar tending during the Cavs-Lakers game, I refused to serve drinks unless it was a time out. When the playoffs come my friend (who is a Boston fan) and I have agreed that it'd be best that we don't watch games together if there's a Celts-Cavs series. It just wouldn't be safe.

None of this compares to my love for the Indians though. I'm a baseball guy. My brother calls me a purist even. I can sit for hours at a time watching pitcher's duels. I don't need home runs to get excited (although hitting them was my favorite thing to do). I love every facet of baseball. I can watch it at home, at a bar, or live and enjoy it just the same.

It's tough being a Cleveland fan what with the Browns constant clusterf*&% and the unnerving talks of Lebron leaving our town, which would render the Cavs insignificant again, but one could argue that the Indians are the best at breaking our hearts. They are good once every four years but that year they're REALLY good. Just not the best. Then all off season we fans get excited because hey, "There's always next year!" That next year turns into a debacle and it hurts even worse because we expected to be good. Dumb idea I know. When you couple all this with the fact that our division is pretty mediocre and, thus, even a decent team has a shot of making the playoffs it creates the perfect storm of pain. That's why, despite a depleted pitching staff and no real power threats in our line-up I'm predicting the Tribe finds a way to finish over .500 and just miss the playoffs, all while managing to suck the fans in and cut us even deeper.

While I love winter, this recent barrage of snow storms has been difficult to handle for just about everyone. It took me a little over 5 hours to get from Lorain to Cincy, a trip that should take around 3 and 1/2. So while you're traveling in the snow these next few days and hating everyone in front of you for going 9 miles an hour just think of these few words and you'll start to think of spring...
Pitchers and Catchers report.


People ask me what I do in the winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare
out the window and wait for spring.
-Rogers Hornsby