Let The Games Begin!

PROOF HAS ARRIVED. Baseball Season is here. What is this proof?

The Super Bowl is over! And, strictly from a dietary point of view – I’m glad.

Let me explain.

When there is a football game on TV we find ourselves either napping away the afternoon or reaching for another slice of pizza. Not a lot of calories being burned in relation to the culinary intake.

We find it difficult to get overly excited about most football games. While NFL games are better than college games to be sure, there is nothing that gets the heart pumping like a well executed 6 to 4 to 3 double play or the strategic duel between a wily pitcher and a determined batter.

This past Sunday we sat and watched the Super Bowl – the whole game. We also destroyed a pepperoni pizza. Of course, the very next day I had a doctor’s appointment – with my Nutritionist. It was hard to explain to him why I was several pounds heavier than the last time I saw him. It was also hard to explain why there were pepper flakes clinging to my sweatshirt. He didn’t buy it when I told him it was because we had run out of curry powder.

Having the Pizza Hut receipt fall out of my coat pocket didn’t help either.

My Nutritionist, a nice fellow, is one of about six million doctors in Terre Haute who are originally from India. (Terre Haute, that’s French for, “Carry Me Back To Old Mumbai.”) He just doesn’t grasp the importance of the change of seasons that took place when the football game ended.

But, back to Baseball –

Having the last of the seven hundred Super Bowl commercials play is a lot like seeing the first robin of springtime, having the Swallows returning to Capistrano, or the increase in ads for Las Vegas. They all mean that THE GAME – Baseball is returning.

On strictly a personal level, the return of Baseball is good for my health.

When the SF Giants take the field my heartbeat picks up a notch and I can’t help but get up on my feet and do a little Happy Dance – good exercise to be sure. Both of us get some very good aerobic exercise setting up the annual Giants Shrine. During the Off-Season (aka The Dark Ages) we have acquired a legion of new bobbleheads that need to be placed in the Shrine. This is not something you do in fifteen minutes. It can take hours, if not days, to find just the right balance of springiness versus action poses. It brings sweat to the brow and you know what they say – “No pain, no gain.”

I know that having me wax rhapsodic about the return of Baseball may leave some people cold. Of course, those people are poor lost souls who are more to be pitied than censured – unless they are Dodger fans, then “Fie upon them.”

The pitchers and catchers report to their spring training camps in a few days and it makes me misty-eyed to see the players working out and sharpening their skills. The sound of a round bat swinging at a round ball, and hitting it squarely is music to my ears.

“Take me out to the ball game. Take me out to the crowd.”

A sweeter song was never written.

As winter fades and the sunshine lingers in the sky the Fields of Dreams become busy and the bleachers fill with the faithful.

Ah, Baseball Season is nigh now that the Gridiron empties and the shoulder pads are packed away. Ninety foot chalk lines are put down and home plate is whisk-broomed clean.

Have you guessed yet that I’m smiling?

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