Today in Columbus, it is 55 degrees and sunny. This is a January day you wish you could defer until April when there is a home game to go to and it is in the 30s and drizzling. But anyway, that's not why today is a beautiful day. I was out doing some errands, and stopped into the bookstore. And to my surprise, there was the 2006 Sporting News Baseball preview magazine.
One of the sure signs that baseball is coming for me has always been the appearance of these magazines. I'm not sure why I am so drawn to them, because I usually find some of the "analysis" downright idiotic, like the one a couple years ago that told me Garret Anderson was a superstar and the Yankees, who led the AL in walks that year, were a bunch of undisciplined free-swingers. But I always buy all of them, and skim all of them, and read a few of them. Unfortunately, their ranks have dwindled over my time as a fan: "Baseball Illustrated", "Spring Training", and most lamentably, the excellent "Bill Mazeroski's" have all vanished. But there is still TSN, and Street and Smith's, and Athlon Sports, and Lindy's, and the SI baseball preview edition which usually comes out the week the season starts. The only one I will not buy is the insipid MLB-produced advertisement approrpriately titled "MLB".
Anyway, these usually tend to make their appearance around the middle of February when spring training starts, at least if my memory serves. But if TSN wants to brighten today, I won't argue with them.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Today is a beautiful day
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For me, the good day is not the appearance of these mags in the store, it's the day pitchers and catchers report to spring training. I used to buy a few of those mags every year, but nowadays I just read the player comments in the B Prospectus and a couple other informed sources like Shandler's annual.
ReplyDeleteThe opening of ST has never done much for me. The opening of the exhibition season is always a good day though. That only holds me over for about two weeks and then I am eager for the real games to start.
ReplyDeleteI also love those useless pre-season magazines if only because they remind of my youth when I actually thought the authors were baseball experts. I don't usually buy them anymore but I skim through a few of them and it's just comforting to see them on the shelves. Another comforting harbinger of the baseball season for me is the picture of the Red Sox equipment truck in The Boston Globe as it prepares for the trip south. I don't know if other newspapers have the same tradition.
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