Finally

I know they played yesterday, but that game seemed little more than rumour to me, what with the lack of radio signals emanating from Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, FLA. But today, things really feel as though they're getting underway. I logged onto MLB Audio (Thanks, PT! Your account still works!) and holy mother good goddamn does Jerry Howarth's voice sound good to these ears; Alan Ashby, too, for that matter (though he did go on an extended spiel about Eckstein's scrappiness, which I fear won't be the last we hear of that particular trope from his lips), as well as Wilner offering his well-chosen and statistically sound insertions. In short, there's baseball on the radio (er, computer), and it's about goddamn time. This has been a long winter; my heart belongs to baseball, though in years past I have used hockey as something of a crutch to limp through the cold months, a methadone balm to my raging addiction. But this year I couldn't be arsed, mostly because I find Senators fans increasingly irksome (it's not the band I hate, it's the fans...), and that, coupled with the crazy wintriness of this winter (whither global warming?) has me just about doggone nuts. So this is a good day.

It is Spring Training, of course, and the radio guys have some kinks to work out, too (Ashby sounds like he's half a room away from his mic half the time), but even if they were recreating the action from telegraph reports, using corny sound effects and fake crowd noise, it'd still be music to my ears.

Stairsy! Hurt! Overbay! Ah, such sweet music! Mine heart thrums.