DONNIE JOHNSTON: 'Pitchers and Catchers Report'
Those who know, know. Those who don't ... welcome to the church of baseball.
By Donnie Johnston
COLUMNIST
This is an exciting week.
Yes, I know the weather is lousy here, but things are much better in Florida and Arizona, and pitchers and catchers start reporting to spring training today.
As far as I’m concerned, there are only two seasons in the year – baseball season and the off-season. It has been a long time since the last World Series pitch was thrown and I’m ready for some baseball.
I guess the biggest off-season news was the Mets signing former Washington National Juan Soto, then re-signing first-baseman Pete Alonzo (just last week).
Once again, the Mets will have a payroll the size of the national debt, but as we all know, that doesn’t guarantee a pennant. Then again, sometimes it does, as with the Dodgers last year.
Washington picked up a first baseman, but little other help for a club that was dreadful last year. I suppose the Nationals are counting on their younger players to mature this season.
The final two weeks of February is a pretty dull time in the sports world, at least for me. Football season is over and spring training baseball games are still two weeks away.
There is college basketball, but Virginia and Virginia Tech are floundering, and it looks like Duke will run away with the ACC this year.
I don’t watch pro basketball or hockey, and with all this portal stuff I’m pretty put out with college basketball. So, if there is not a John Wayne movie on TV, it’s a long night for me.
Speaking of college basketball, “the portal,” and players being paid to play an “amateur” sport (Duke freshman Cooper Flagg reportedly makes $4.2 million), maybe it is time we started paying high school athletes. Why not? If college players can collect big bucks, why shouldn’t high schoolers get paid for their efforts?
This playing simply for school pride is an antiquated concept. These kids could be slinging hamburgers at McDonald’s for $15 an hour instead of practicing basketball every afternoon. School boards should get with the times and start paying players, at least at the minimum wage, with bonuses for championships and individual accomplishments.
Some colleges recruit players out of middle school, so maybe there should also be compensation for kids on that level.
High school sports, especially football and basketball, is entertainment so maybe kids should be paid for their performances.
Don’t forget (men would like to) that Friday is Valentine’s Day, a day when you’re supposed to give candy and flowers to your sweetheart (men get nothing but the check for dinner).
Somehow, society has forgotten that Valentine’s Day is just for lovers. And now it seems we want to give everyone at least a card to mark the occasion. I’m sure that idea was promoted by card and candy companies to get your money. I say phooey to such nonsense.
You may love your kids, your mother, and your cousin in Milwaukee, but they are not your lovers. Let’s keep the custom in the traditional framework.
Being the incurable romantic that I am, I celebrate each year by watching the movie The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Remember that event, a bunch of hoods lined up against the wall and shot during Prohibition in Chicago? One of my favorite gangster movies – and true. Me, my best girl, Al Capone and Bugs Moran – with a bowl of popcorn. Do I know how to celebrate Valentine’s Day or what!
Okay, I know I predicted that winter was essentially over two weeks ago, but so many old-timers complained that “we don’t have winters like we Used to” that the old groundhog and I got together and decided to give them what they asked for.
Most people, even this Indian, are tired of the cold and the ice and the snow and the mud. But I do have one friend that is loving this weather. She is in Miami.
And we gain almost an hour of daylight this month. Think positive. Spring is almost here.
The Game Department sent out deer-kill numbers last week and some 206,000 animals were checked in, down about 1,000 from last year’s kill.
That doesn’t mean there were fewer deer, likely just fewer hunters and fewer animals actually checked using the new honor system. The actual kill is probably 10 percent higher.
Hunters didn’t make a dent in the population as anyone who drives after dark will tell you. During my nighttime travels, I routinely see as many as 20-25 in a 30-mile stretch (the other afternoon there were 15 in one herd).
Almost a dozen deer were killed this season in my neighborhood alone, and there are at least another dozen left, just waiting to get in my garden.
The state has got to come up with some way to get rid of the deer. They are ruining crops and causing vehicle insurance premiums to rise.
Remember, every dead deer on the highway is an insurance claim.
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Baseball!?!
Baseball?!?
How can someone go on about Nats, and Mets, and whoever (please don't say the "Y" word, it's too early in the morning), and not mention real baseball?
It's already begun.
The Road to Omaha, of course.
VT plays Bucknell this weekend. VA is ranked #2 in the nation and plays Michigan, Villanova, and Rice this week, then travels to Texas to play Oregon State, Minnesota, and Oklahoma.
The real season is here. Enjoy.
And then, right when the decision is made on the plains of the Missouri, then Little League heats up. The last vestige of amateur baseball begins its own tournaments, building toward their own piece of adolescent heaven, in Williamsport.
If you must bother with the overpaid millionaires playing for the benefit of billionaires, do. There are worse ways to spend your money and time (WWE or Nascar come to mind), but if you wanna see some real baseball being played, I'd suggest lowering your eyes down a league or two...