This winter has been unlike any that I’ve seen before. The cold seems colder, the snow seems deeper, and the winds seem to whip everything up with more gusto than usual.
A conversation with a baseball-loving colleague earlier this week produced what I’m going to call the Wilker Rule. It’s an inverse relationship between the severity of a winter and our desire for baseball the following spring. In other words, the worse the winter is, the more we want baseball to come back again.
This winter offers a perfect test for this new rule. Knowing that the ballplayers have converged upon Florida and Arizona–in preparation for another season of twists and turns, disappointments and triumphs–makes today’s blowing snow more tolerable, at least in my mind.
Keep bringing the snow and ice, Winter, but your days are numbered now. And baseball will show you the door soon enough.
Blue Batting Helmet 