Winter Must Die

Well, the snow is finally here. Despite the fact that I live in Utah there is a part of me that always hopes winter will not come. Every year I think this might be the year that it just stays warm all year round, and every year like a punch to the gut it comes like a Napoleonic invasion.

I hate winter. Not sure if I’m in the minority on this one, but I do. Being cold is one of my least favorite feelings in the world, right up there with seeing Max Hall dropping back in the pocket against a ranked team. It’s weird because I have actually lived in cold weather climates for the past 10 years so you’d think I would get used to it but instead every winter seems colder than the last.

Winter also sucks because it doesn’t allow me to do any of the fun outdoor things I like to do, such as golf, baseball, laying by the pool and porching. True, Christmas is great and I do enjoy the occasional snowboarding, but it hurts my knees and is too expensive and cold to do on a regular basis. Not to mention the fact that my car would revolt if told it had to drive me up the mountain once a week. Not happening.

I think my hatred of winter is one of the reasons why I love baseball so much. When the baseball season starts, spring is finally emerging from its slumber and it literally feels like anything is possible. Each new baseball season brings the promise of a new beginning with spring vanquishing the horrible, gray, soul killing winter. Plus, there are games everyday, and I can testify that there is little in our lives that is in fact so dependable.

Even as the season is winding down, summer has just turned into fall, comfortably cooling things off and giving us one more taste of happiness before the deatheater’s kiss of winter arrives back in our lives. As a result of baseball being so closely tied with the seasons, I have been conditioned to know that if baseball is not being played, I am more than likely cold and miserable.

Now, I’m not a scientist, but I really think there is loads of promise to this whole global warming thing. If I understand the inventor of the internet correctly, we can actually influence the temperature by being careless with the way we pollute the atmosphere. Sounds like a plan! If we have been successful in doing this up until now, we need to keep going. Now is not the time to quit. The endless summer is well within our grasp. Will it screw things up for future generations? Not our problem. Besides, who wants to leave our posterity with the same freezing planet we now inhabit? Didn’t think so. Can we all commit to do our part? I sincerely hope so, because every little bit counts.

Let the games begin.