The sun shines a little brighter when Opening Day is right around the corner, even though no matter what the weatherman says, there's always a chance of one more snow.
It marks the end of another long winter. Another long winter of wondering if the chemistry’s going to be there. If the right guys will have career years. Which if any of the “kids” will pan out. If there’s going to be another last-minute deal like Dallas Green pulled off in 1984.
Go through this for a couple, t'ree decades and you get a little frustrated. Have they really done enough in the off-season or will we just wind up banging our heads against the wall by the middle of May again? It's the same question every year, as it should be, but then every year there seems to be just that one thing that snaps a die-hard back into place.
This year it was the no-hitter in spring training.
Okay, it wasn't quite a no-hitter, but getting through nine is the closest the North Siders have come as long as I've been bleeding Cubbie Blue.
And it was the kids, to boot, Sean Marshall and Angel Guzman. You can follow all the trades and signings and have an idea of what to expect out of a lot of guys, but somebody has to be Rookie of the Year. Marshall's even left-handed, which at any given time has been a missing ingredient in the starting rotation since Steve Trout was traded.
Toss in a last-minute trade and a final decision on who's starting where, and with that possible X factor some of those thoughts shift from "will they" to "maybe they can". And then the sun starts to shine a little brighter...
1 comment:
Hmm, as I read the opening lines about the sun shining a little brighter, a hail storm is passing over Chicago. And I have to wonder if the date of the first post is a coincidence...
Doesn't mean I'm not going to see the Cubs on Saturday, of course.
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