They will start with some conditioning exercises and a little soft toss. At first, the pitchers will throw to the catchers while standing around. Nothing hot, just a couple of guys tossing a baseball around. They will do this for a few days and by Thursday, when the rest of the team arrives at the park, they will start throwing from the mound.
This ritual has gone on for quite some time and it signifies the start of that wonderful time of the year we call baseball season.
It's a time when young men gather on a field of green grass & tan clay on sunny days. They will smack the leather of their gloves and maybe, if no one is looking, they'll stick the glove up to their face and inhale deeply because there is nothing that smells quite like a worn baseball glove.
At some point, a very official looking guy will yell "Play Ball!" and point at the pitcher. The young men will then spend three hours playing a game that they have played their entire life. They will try to hit a 3 inch sphere traveling at 90 mph using a cylindrical wooden tube that is 2 1/4 inch in diameter. They will catch the sphere using a specially manufactured glove made entirely of either cow or kangaroo leather.
They will try to advance through four points along a diamond without being touched by the sphere and they will try to get the sphere to the point nearest the runner to prevent him from reaching it.
They will laugh with, and at, each other. They will berate themselves when they screw up and they will thump their chests when they do well. They will run, slide, jump, throw, hit and catch with a skill that has been honed for, on average, 20 years.
And when it is all done, they will go home, get some sleep and do it all over again the next day.
In case you don't know this, I love this time of the year.
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Here are some links that you may, or may not, enjoy:
- Key phrase in this story: "It cannot hit earth."
- Fortunately they aren't called The Bakersfield Grizzly Bears.
- If you have arachnophobia, don't go to Brazil.
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