Far In The Background

Can you hear it, sense it? I suppose you have to be a fan to know what I am talking about and it's hard to do with all the frost, snow, and windchill. It helps if you're someplace warm but I got a whiff even while walking in the negative windchill yesterday. It's like hearing voices on the wind or a whispered conversation in the other part of the house. Its there, a warm full buzz of activity, but you can't make out the details.

If you close your eyes and get real quiet you might be able to pick it up, feel it. Can you?

It's a warm summer day with big white clouds that race over a brilliant green and well lined field. It's a distant crack of a bat. The solid feel of impact as a ball hits the pocket of your glove. It's chatter from the dugout, quick bits of infield communication, the dust rising up from a second base slide. Is it a bunt? A swing away? Fastball? Curveball? Will he go for the steal?

The sound or smell of it lasts only a second and then it's taken away by a wash of cold air, a snowflake on the cheek, or the crunching of snow underneath your shoes. You're brought back to February and trying to undig your car from the snow, trying to build a fire in the fireplace.

But, if you listen, if you look for it, it's there. It makes the cold a little more bearable.

Of course, if you're not a fan, I understand.

You're just going to have to trust me that it's there.