Comfort and Knowledge

 As I drove west back home fresh from a nice visit with my father, on skype with my son in Sudbury, I put on the radio and the game was on.

The Jays were playing the Tigers, and Jerry Howarth and  Alan Ashby were calling a spring training game.

There was suddenly comfort in listening to a double play or hit batter, or a pitching change, because it was back. The game was officially on my mind, and it was comfort, and that's what I experience when there is something resembling the game. Even a spring time game, when players come and go like shoppers in a mall.

There is, and will be as the snow falls on Mississauga tonight, the impending knowledge that the spring games bring us. How's Lind handling those routine grounders, is Hill's quad better, and what type of break on the ball does Rajah Davis get, as compared to Vernon Wells. Knowledge and comfort, they are what is offered right now.

Speculation will join that duo in a week or two, and threesome will run their course for awhile, as comfort gives way to familiarity,  Speculation will stay around until all the cuts are made, and doubt will pop in and out as an old friend.

The radio game in the early stages allows for all to heard, because these games are about stretching out the arms, brushing up on the bunt, the double steal and sorting out of bullpen roles.

Radio allows the fan to hear the experts discuss why D'Arnaud is a real comer behind the plate, and why Jose Molina and John McDonald act as surrogate coaches as well as colleagues.
Ashby breaks down the plate blocking abilities, and Howarth discusses the battle for closer, and twists and turns it takes, all the while calling a game in progress.

It is the discussion within the contest, the warmth that you feel, gives me the comfort that my game is back.  Just some of the phrases you like to hear, "Bautista comes to bat here in the top of the 6th, with "ducks on the pond".

Ducks on the Pond

" 2 and 2, with one out, and the go ahead run just 90 feet away"

" He's in a hole here, 0 and 2, with two out, just trying to stay alive, fouling off pitch after pitch "

Well, it's again that time of year, and while I have one eye on the Leafs, I watch the spring game unfold.

The knowledge comes out later, and we learn a little more every day.