The Three Greatest Words in the English Language.

It's that Weekend. Yes that one. The one where there is no baseball. There is no football.

(Please don't try to argue that the Pro Bowl is football!)

Enthusiastic baseball and football fans plan for this weekend. It becomes the time when long 

put off projects rise to the top of the to do list. We suddenly have time to fix that toilet

that's been running constantly since the third game of the World Series. It's time to caulk those

drafty widows. It's time because there is time.

There is no football. There is no baseball.

Don't tell me about basketball and ice hockey. Both cannot be watched on television with the

same level of excitement of baseball and football. 

So that brings us to our headline, "The Three Greatest Words in the English Language."

"Pitchers and catchers," baby. "Pitchers and catchers."

For baseball fans, Winters doesn't start on December 23rd. It starts the moment of the final

out of the World Series.

When the Phillies' Brad Lidge struck out Eric Hinske of Tampa Bay to clinch the Series for

Philadelphia. There was pure ecstacy and at the same time deep despair. For in Winning, there is 

losing. 

The season ends and thus begins the long winter of our discontent.

While meteorological winter won't end for six weeks, the hope that abounds with a new season is merely

days away for baseball fans. It will come not when Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig arises from his

burrow to announce six more weeks for Barry Bonds. It comes when one dares to utter the words,

"Pitchers and catchers."

The start of baseball's spring training is just days away. The first players to report will be pitchers and

catchers. Soon after position players will report.

The cold will be just as cold. The snow will continue to fall. But it seems just a bit easier to cope

when you know that in Florida and Arizona, grown men have begun practicing the game of boys.

For fans of teams that both won and lost last season, hope springs eternal with spring training.