The sights and sounds of Florida and Arizona are strictly baseball related: the ball smacking the back of the catcher's glove, the crack of a wood bat against a 95 mile an hour fast ball, the scent of freshly cut grass and the dirt stains from a slide home. They're all back and better than ever. Spring training is upon us. Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring, but in my book, the only way to formally kick off this next season is by bringing back America's past time and letting the 2016 MLB Season officially commence.
I've been experiencing baseball withdrawals since the Royals took the crown this fall, and when football season officially ended, the baseball void grew even larger as I longed for the start of its new season. Keeping up with the MLB.com updates just hasn't been enough, and now with spring training excitement underway, you can find me on my laptop watching games almost everyday. This spring training season has been fun and exciting, and with great anticipation, I believe we are facing a noteworthy season ahead.
Spring training magic has been coming in waves each week, like last week with the White Sox completing a triple play against the Royals and the Royals answering with an inside the park home-run. Two events, highly unlikely, happening in the same game?! And this is only spring training. Aroldis Chapman is settling into the Yankees roster quite nicely, commenting that he felt his command was off in his debut with the Bronx Bombers, but is ready and excited for the year to come. Foreshadowing the season itself, many will have a tough time saying goodbye to Boston and baseball great, David Ortiz, as Big Papi's final curtain call will be this year. One can expect a similar farewell tour as we saw with the great Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter, as teams will be bestowing gifts upon the great Big Papi all season long. There are new prospects, fresh talent, and the game's greats back in action in just a few short weeks.
MLB has been reaching its demographic in as many ways as it can. Last year, MLB partnered with Snapchat for MLB Wednesdays, a series of snippets and clips taken by fans from that day's games. Everything streamed is filtered by a greater executive committee; however, fans felt that their presence at the game was contributing to these live updates, whereas fans at home who maybe cannot stream the game or missed SportsCenter, could tune in to their Snapstory feeds to get the latest details. On March 11th, MLB deemed the day 'MLB Snapchat Takeover Day,' where each separate MLB team will be posting spring training updates from its individual Snapchat account, allowing all fans to remain up close and personal in anticipation for Opening Day on April 3rd.
Only a few more weeks until America's past time is before us again, where we watch teams compete day by day for a chance at postseason competition, and where we witness some of the greatest moments in sport history. It's about time we play ball.
