Spring- A time for optimism and baseball
Spring. What a wonderful time of year. It's a time for renewal. It's a time to turn over a new slate and a chance to enjoy the absolute wonders of Mother Nature as she sheds her winter coat and grows green again.

Spring symbolizes the rebirth of all things living, which makes it one of the holiest times of the year in the eyes omany cultures. True, April brings with it the nuisance of tax season, buthat sting- like many of life's aches and pains- is softened by the arrival of baseball, America's favorite pastime. Like the diamond of another sort, baseball's pad is richThe beautiful thing about baseball season is that even though life's problems await off the field, little seems amiss during the glorious hours between shouts of "play ball" and the game's final out.

There's nothing quite like watching a baseball game with a cool drink in one hand and a hot dog smothered with the workin the other. It's your team versus theirs. And although only

bragging rights are at stake- certainly there are more importanthings in the world than a baseball game- watching youfavorite player score the game-winning run is a sure-fire way to make you feel like you're sitting on top of the world, even if your seats are at the top of the stadium and not down close where you can smell the freshly cut grass and hear the crack of the bat.

Spring.

It's an opportunity to start fresh and a time when anything is possible.

Given nine innings, 27 outs and two teams ready to play their hearts out, who knows what can happen? As Walt Whitman once said: "I see great things in baseballIt's our game- the American game. It will take our people ouof doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physicastoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair those losses, and be a blessing to us."