Is It Spring Training Yet?

Posted as a Facebook note February 7, 2008.

Piles of snow, February 2008

One week from today, the Cubs begin workouts at their spring training camp in Arizona. The other major league teams will begin workouts at roughly the same time. This is important, because in Iowa we have been inundated with snow. We got 13 inches yesterday, the latest and greatest in a series of ice and snow storms that has made a long winter.

Aside from reducing my morale to the size of a pinhead, the snowfalls have created two problems. One is what to do with it. At our house, the driveway is short, but runs along the alley at about a 15 degree angle. If there's any quantity of snow at all, we have to shovel it from the alley side of the driveway to the yard side, which means we are often throwing the same snowflakes two or three times, and that we eventually get to a huge wall of snow at the edge of the yard. I think we're about at capacity now. At least it was fun burying our picket fence.

The other problem is what to do with my children. They enjoy the snow, particularly Robbie, who's deeply into sledding and skiing. But children their age should be in school, and schools in Iowa seem loath to operate when there's inclement weather. This week's blizzard cost us yesterday, which was understandable, as well as today, which makes no sense at all. They cancel, or delay start, or dismiss early, at the slightest hint of foul weather. This extreme risk aversion is defended, self-righteously, with the claim that their first concern is the safety of their students. Wrong. Your first concern is the education of your students. My first concern is their safety, and when everyone in town is going to work on plowed streets, there's no reason why children can't go to school.

Do I sound grouchy? It's because I need baseball. I've been a sports fan all my life. I find basketball, hockey, and soccer entertaining. I confess to finding football rather dull. But my need for baseball is primal. As January drags into February, and February spews blizzards and subzero temperatures (forecast for the weekend) at us, I grasp at any sign of spring I can. Reading about baseball players in warm states doesn't change the temperature or melt the snow, but it makes things feel a lot warmer.

I didn't really understand this until a few years ago when I took a January term class on a tour of the old Veterans Stadium in Cedar Rapids. I took a bus to the stop a few blocks away, then walked over. As I came over a ridge and the stadium came in sight, I had a surge of elation the sort of which usually requires megadosing caffeine. I could use that mood elevation right now. I like hot chocolate, but it will only get me so far.

Nationals Park, February 2018