Spring, a time for baseball and optimism
Spring. What a wonderful time of year. It's a time for renewal. It's a time to turn over a new slate and a chance to enjoy the absolute wonders of Mother Nature as she sheds her winter coat and grows green again.

Spring symbolizes the rebirth of all things living, which makes it one of the holiest times of the year in the eyes of many cultures.

True, April brings with it the nuisance of tax season, but that sting- like many of life's aches and pains- is softened by the arrival of baseball, America's favorite pastime.

A warm sun cures all.

The beautiful thing about baseball season is that even though it's the time of year when payments are due and many of life's usual problems persist- everything is placed on hold during those glorious hours between shouts of "play ball" and the game's final out. There's nothing quite like watching a baseball game with a cool drink in one hand and a hot dog smothered with the works in the other.

It's your team versus theirs. And although only bragging rights are at stake- certainly there are more important things in the world than a baseball game- watching your favorite player score the game-winning run is a sure-fire way to make you feel like you're sitting on top of the world, even if your seats are at the top of the stadium and not up close where you can smell the freshly cut grass and hear the crack of the bat. Spring.

It's an opportunity to start fresh and a time when anything is possible. Given nine innings, 27 outs and two teams ready to play their hearts out, who knows what can happen?

As Walt Whitman once said: "I see great things in baseball. It's our game- the American game. It will take our people out of doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair those losses, and be a blessing to us."