One more day

Only one more day until the first game of the 2009 season for the Red Sox. That is, if the weather cooperates.

In the meantime, to get geared up, I'd like to share two of my favorite baseball essays. One of the first pieces I ever remember reading by Peter Gammons appeared in Sports Illustrated's November 3, 1986 issue. I cut it out and I've re-read it many times over the years. It perfectly summed up my feelings that dread night of Game 6. Thankfully, all of those beautiful words are readily available now from the SI vault

How will it feel? For years we had asked ourselves, "How will it feel if the Red Sox ever win?" How will it feel if there are two outs and none on in the bottom of the 10th with a 5-3 lead in Game 6 of the World Series? How, in God's name, will it feel?

The reason why he's such a respected writer!

My other favorite is by A. Bartlett Giamatti, one of the most brilliant men to ever hold the office of Commisioner of Baseball. Although the piece is better read in October, as baseball winds down, it's still wonderful:

"The Green Fields of the Mind "

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.

Tomorrow can't come too soon!!