Oh baseball.
The sport takes me back to my youth, of watching games with my grandpa George, throwing popups to my friend David and spending hours honing my fastball in the backyard. Opening Day brings back amazing memories like Derek Jeter's first (and last) opening days in pinstripes, Giancarlo Stanton's two dinger performance against Toronto in 2018 and Godzilla's grand slam in his debut.
And so every year, spring training starts to drag and I can't wait for the start of a long wonderful season.
Baseball requires and rewards patience. The Opening Day lineups won't be intact for the playoffs - players will get injured, end up in the minors and get caught cheating. A lot changes over 162 games, even my own motivation as a fan.
During the dog days, I'll question whether I'm really into baseball anymore. Whether I even have the time to get as immersed in the stats as baseball deserves and requires its fans to be. Next offseason, I'll question whether I'm into professional baseball as the owners and MLBPA look set to square off again in another lockout. But when the season opens that's all gone and I'm a baseball mad 10 year old again.