Spring is around the corner.

Now that the New Year's celebration is behind us it's time to start focusing on the next big event. No, not Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day or any other holiday, we're talking spring training! The first games are scheduled to start in approximately 60 days. (Factoring in February being a short month and all.)

If it seems baseball just ended, it did. The New York Yankees won the World Championship on November 5, 2009---if you do that math, that's a shorter period of time from the last game of the series to the beginning of spring training in MLB history. It's a good thing they were not playing in Chicago, they would have been competing with the Bulls, Bears and Mother Nature. For some reason right after Halloween the weather turns---it's like it's all planned that way.

I do like baseball, it's a game that is fairly easy to understand. Baseball has it's moments of extraordinary athleticism, and is the game I grew up with in St. Louis, Missouri. As a boy there was little doubt the team that had St. Louis's heart were the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals were the sport in town; not the only sport as we had pro basketball---yes, the St. Louis Hawks---but in the mid-60s they moved to Atlanta, then the Blues arrived in 1968 when the league expanded. In a matter of months it seemed, we were obsessed with professional hockey but no one really understood the game. However, they got to know it well as the Blues made the finals early in the its young existence. They lost to the Montreal Canadians, and it took them a few years before they were able to beat them.

It is kind of hard to believe spring is around the corner. We are in the middle of a cold spell, snow is on the ground, and snow men are all over the neighborhood; you can always tell it's winter as no one is outside talking in the neighborhood. It's a wave we give to our neighbors as we make the quick run to our cars. I really do not like winter at all.

The photo above was taken in Galena, IL. It's a beautiful town and the morning we woke up we had a lot of snow on the ground and bright sunshine. We also had birds; it helps that the bed and breakfast we stayed in had bird seed. When I saw the Cardinal outside I knew I had to have a picture; I didn't even realize Cardinals were found in cold climates. What I like most about this picture is the Cardinal is on top. Call it symbolism but when it comes to spring training very few teams command the interest as much as the Cards. They are my team.

Thanks for stopping by.