A brief observation as spring gets under way

I realized today that Major League Baseball starts it's season better than every other league. The NBA and NHL start in the heart of the Football regular season, who notices? Does anyone know when the MLS starts? The NFL is the only league with a chance to rival it but they can't. Here my fellow sportslovers, is why:

Football is without a doubt the most popular sport in the country. But the excitement of mini-camps and opening kickoff just don't seem to catch up with MLB's spring training and opening day. The obvious reason is because at the begining of a season everyone is excited about baseball because they forgot how long the season was. It means summer is on the way. And we get to talk about steroids again.

To be fair there is truth to that. There is the idea of starting fresh. 162 games to go, one loss won't kill you. Stretch it over time and suddenly 70, 80, 90 loss seasons become the longest summer ever. But at the start of the season you can still say we'll get them next time and believe it.

Baseball is synonymous with summer. Pitchers and Catchers means a coming break in the cold, or a break in school, or vacation time! Yes, warmth gives baseball a good leg up over the winter sports.

And of course we can't mention baseball now a days without mentioning steroids. The press drools at the sight of scandals and Americans seem to as well. Baseball is ripe with scandal, and the Media is ready.

But to me the biggest reason for MLB overcoming The NFL in preseason and early season excitement is, the NFL. Yes, the NFL hands the title over to the MLB with it's gigantic party: the Super Bowl. The game being in early february leaves fans who haven't paid any attention to anything other than football for the past 22 weeks wanting. But don't despair, pitchers and catchers appear. Right on time to catch fans still pumped up on beer and nachos that they need a new fix. Baseball swoops right in and picks them up, dusts them off and says, "your team didn't win, but heres a fresh start!" (stupid Colts fans don't have baseball. HA! how are you going to pass your offseason? yeah!) And just like that we're fed new stats to mull over, new fantasy drafts, new names, new players in new towns.

But then of course, the inevitable happens. You start to find out about halfway through the season that your team ain't going anywhere. But to those lucky NFL fans that means 8 more games. To the die-hard MLB fans you have to watch 91 more games before you're saved. The NFL will eventually sweep up those fans as the season gets under way, but you don't have the same momentum as before. You're down on the sporting world, you're pessimistic and po'd because you still haven't recovered from your baseball teams dramatic slide to the bottom of the toilet. And so, you slowly peel off your cubs jersey (a mark prior one with all the duct tape holding it together) as another season of empty promises slowly sinks in, and you slowly put on your bears jersey just waiting for them to collapse too.

But in the meantime Me in my white Sox jersey will have already forgotten that I own a rex grossman jersey, and will be too gripped to the pennant race to worry about the Bears mini-camps and opening kick. By the time I do finally realise that football is being played the season is already underway and I missed the whole start of it.

And so, with left-over beer from the super bowl, I am quite ready to welcome the first pitch of what is sure to be the greatest baseball season ever... with the exception of alot of seasons before it.... I mean ALOT.