You Don’t Miss Your Water

Yermin Mercedes? Who included him on their list of 100 best MLB prospects?? And yet there he is, emerging on the grandest stage of all. He garnered eight hits in his first nine at bats, where he may yet position himself with Sam Horn and other legendary April wonders. Or is he the real deal? Is his a name we shall remember for seasons to come? Those are the questions that try baseball fan’s souls, but make the pain feel so very, very good. And it feels so good to be pouring over the box scores in search of nuggets of wonder like the Dominican, Yermin Mercedes–and his wife, Alejandra who arrives with your morning coffee as an added Google bonus.

Baseball is back and god how we missed it last spring. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” is one of those truisms about which one can learn the truth only through pain, and believe me Mr. Jones, I’ve known me some absence.

Which is why when my Rotisserie league had a zoom draft several nights ago, the laughter and camaraderie among the 12 team owners of the thirty-five year old Farragut League felt like rain falling on one of those hot summer nights in Georgia where the sweat had been so thick all day you just wanted to listen to the sound of the drops beating on the roof top. It was so good to be there, to see the faces and look for the sly tells about who was going to bid on Mike Trout THIS year. And that joy has only spread and taken root in this spring of great hope. The games continue. The Baltimore Orioles have won three in a row. Hope truly does spring eternal.

The pandemic is not over. Oh no, people are still dying. People are still being stupid. The Nationals cannot manage to put a team on the field because their players–unvaccinated by the team–observed all the protocols but found the COVID virus nonetheless. The virus has not gone away, nor have any of the other threats to our civilization. Which is why the simple equation of pitcher versus batter, the moment of truth as the ball spins toward the plate, as the anticipation builds into such a profound few seconds, can create such magic.

Yes, there are many lingering effects from 2020 if you want to see them, and see them we must. They have not been vanquished and sent fleeing. And yet there is baseball pushing back against it all, which can be a great and wonderful thing.

The 2021 baseball season is going to be one for the record books. I don’t know what records will be set and what might actually set this season apart for the purists. Maybe nothing will, but just the fact that we can hope for a full season, that we can hope for young players like Vladimir Guerrero to achieve greatness; that is something worth celebrating, amidst the even more remarkable return to a semblance of normalcy. I will remember this season because it has taught me to appreciate once again all that I have loved for so long. That vibe is there if you only search for it. And baby I just feel it.

Will the Orioles make the World Series? Can the Tampa Bay Rays find the alchemist’s formula for weaving gold from straw and ride it all the way to the World Series? There is a whole season ahead of us and so much to look forward to. I would go on, and on… and on, but I have to get my FAAB bids ready for this afternoon.

Put on some Otis Redding and let’s play two!!