__X__ Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

X Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

by oooreebay on Jan 8, 2008 12:39 PM PST Comment 15 comments

If you're like me, baseball has you by the shorts.

Not only is it your favorite sport, it is BY FAR your favorite. You live it, breath it and plan your vacations around it. You dig online for news and opinions about our national pastime 365.25 days a year at all hours. In the offseason, you find yourself actually watching BaseballChannel.TV, and any hot stove news takes precendence over personal hygiene.

Yet after the 2007 edition of Giants baseball, I actually felt I needed a break. A season that held such promise at the outset transformed into, well, exactly what I thought would happen. The McC gameday threads helped me survive some pancreas-weakening losses, and the "superwonderful" imagery and Photoshop skillz of howtheyscored and natto provided us with ample relief. Nobody likes playing out the string, but at least we had solid comic relief.

At the close of the MLB season, I had NFL fever for a bit, caused mostly by the promise that the 49ers were showing. That, along with a steady dose of Fresno State football success (suck it, Georgia Tech), carried me through December. As soon as the NCAA bowl season started winding down, the focus of my sporting cerebellum naturally turned toward baseball. I damn near forgot what that felt like.

My to-do list now reads as follows:

Wake up
Print out exhibition schedule from sfgiants.com
Renew MLB Audio subscription on MLB.com
Calculate how many days until pitchers and catchers report
Shave
Swing by newsstand to see if Athlon/Sporting News 2008 MLB Baseball Preview is available yet (shiny, shiny)
Go to work

And so I pose this question to you...(poll below)

Poll

When does baseball fever set in for you?

Opening day of the MLB exhibition schedule

4 votes

Opening day of the MLB regular season

2 votes

It never ends...it...just...keeps...festering...

52 votes

The day after the World Series ends

8 votes

The day after the Super Bowl

5 votes

The day after NCAA football season ends

2 votes

The day pitchers and catchers report

14 votes

87 votes | Poll has closed

This FanPost is reader-generated, and it does not necessarily reflect the views of McCovey Chronicles. If the author uses filler to achieve the minimum word requirement, a moderator may edit the FanPost for his or her own amusement.

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Re: X Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

Last winter I was so sad and lost without baseball I just wanted to take out a scorecard and score something. Moving traffic. How many times my cat went from his litter box to the food dish to my bed to the window. Anything. Missing baseball never really ends for me, but I start to count down to pitchers and catchers reporting on January 1 every year.

I even get sad during the season knowing it won't last. It just makes me so happy to have baseball back that I fear losing it all over again. Me and baseball, we're codependent.

Democracy is lovely but baseball is more mature. BVCE supports Manny Burriss and SF Dugout.

by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Jan 8, 2008 12:45 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: X Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

Baseball fever is like Herpes. There is no getting rid. The symptons come and go whenever they damm well please.

by giantsrainman on Jan 8, 2008 12:55 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: X Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

And there're two distinct types, as well. Baseball simplex 1 (NL), and baseball simplex 2 (AL).

Baseball simplex 2 is much nastier, involves painful, oozing, hand sized boils, and affects the genitals. As opposed to baseball simplex 1, which has the weird side effect of making you smarter. In some rare cases generally centered around particularly polluted areas it has the opposite affect, though.

He is Vengeance. He is the Knight. He is Dave Righetti. PRAY TO HIM! / Also, my blog. For writers.

by howtheyscored on Jan 8, 2008 4:34 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: X Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

I read that as "Herges" and thought didn't sense anything was amiss.

Nattowear | comics | Durham? I hardly know 'im!

by Natto on Jan 8, 2008 5:31 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: X Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

There aren't too many days in the offseason that I'm not thinking about baseball, but for pure bliss, my two favorite days of the sports year are the day Pitchers and Catchers Report and of course Opening Day. Both should be national holidays, IMHO.

Lon Simmons' adopted dad.

by Kitspool on Jan 8, 2008 1:24 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: X Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

Opening Day is already practically an unofficial holiday at workplaces/offices everywhere anyways. If baseball really wanted to vault itself back into the limelight as America's game, I'd love to see Opening Day become an official holiday. None of this attaching onto a holiday, like the NFL does with Labor Day.

by LittleCableCars on Jan 8, 2008 2:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: X Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

My boss called me into her office last March one afternoon. I thought I was in deep doodoo, but she just wanted me to listen to the first few innings of the Giants Cactus League opener on XM Radio with her. I like my boss.

Democracy is lovely but baseball is more mature. BVCE supports Manny Burriss and SF Dugout.

by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Jan 8, 2008 2:48 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: X Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

I would have been even more impressed had your boss wanted to listen to the first few innings of Tim Lincecum's first spring training start, but I've got to admit that you boss appears far cooler than most. :)

by sharksrog on Jan 8, 2008 5:58 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: X Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

I voted the day after the Superbowl but what I really meant was the day after the Niners season was over. So basically the end of September (bam dum chhh). Anyways, go Mike Martz, don't fail us.

Adoptive father of David Quinowski: Fuck it, dude, let's go bowling

by marcello on Jan 8, 2008 2:53 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: X Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

Baseball fever died when Barry Bonds was booted out the door. I still haven't recovered.

Normally I am chomping at the bit. This year..meh.

My father gave me a Giants sweatshirt for Xmas...when I opened the box and saw the Giants sticker I did not feel excited, I felt dread.

I am not happy about the Giants at all.

by positiveuphemism on Jan 8, 2008 4:00 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: X Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

Thats sad. I got a sweet giants hat and I don't care how bad they are, I was grinning ear to ear.

And Boom Goes the Dynamite

by Andy from DC on Jan 8, 2008 5:12 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: X Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

It's not about them being good or bad, it is the betrayal to the fans by their treatment of Barry. They should have stood up for him from the very beginning. E said it much better than I could recently but that's basically how I feel. Team management has soured me on the team. Same thing that happened w/ the niners.

by positiveuphemism on Jan 8, 2008 6:43 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: X Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

I'd like to add "The day after the giants are eliminated." as an answer to that poll. Especially in recent years, when watching the playoffs means watching Fox sports pimp the Sox/Yankees rivalry, because while my passion for baseball runs deep, I reserve most of it for the Giants.

"But I AM a stepchild!"-Pedro Feliz

by Smotheredinhugs on Jan 8, 2008 4:06 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: X Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report

I used to tape games randomly throughout the season and not mark the tapes. Then in the offseason I would watch one game 6 days a week because I could not get enough. I still feel that way, but now I have a family and other responsibilities so I don't do that anymore (I think my wife might leave me if I did). I do still count down the days until pitchers and catchers report every year and I can't wait even when there isn't much to look forward to from our beloved team. This could be the year!

OOOOOO - REEEBAY!

by Uribe2Thompson2Clark on Jan 8, 2008 4:56 PM PST reply actions 0 recs