13 DAYS TO GO

Roger Maris
Babe Ruth
Alex Rodriquez
Dick Stuart

That's the true harbinger of spring, not crocuses or swallows returning to Capistrano, but the sound of a bat on a ball." -- Bill Veeck
"I see great things in baseball. It's our game -- the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism, tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us." -- Walt Whitman

"I believe in the Church of Baseball." -- Annie Savoy

The time has come again to hear the sound of a bat on a ball, to be filled with oxygen, to worship at the Church of Baseball. There is even something better, more poetic about the arrival on Thursday of another poetic rite of February called Spring Training.

This time, the first official workouts fall on Valentine's Day. What could be better? This is about our love affair with a game many of us were born into. Maybe it is the sport your father or mother took you to see at the nearest cathedral many years ago, a tradition you carry on today. Maybe you can't imagine living without it.

SPRING BALL BEGAINS IN 13 DAYS