The temperature outside this evening is in the mid-20s. There's still about 2 inches of snow in parts of my backyard. So how can I say that spring is here, especially when the calendar says that it doesn't officially begin until 1:48 AM EDT on March 20th? That's easy. The late Bart Giamatti, former President of Yale University wrote, in 1977, "It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone."
-Source: The Green Fields of the Mind (Yale Alumni Magazine, November 1977)
Today saw the first telecasts of Spring Training baseball games here in Connecticut. Both the Boston Red Sox, and my own beloved New York Yankees played exhibition games today that were shown live on local TV. For me, that represents the true end of winter, and the calendar be damned
In 1984, Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell wrote that "time begins on Opening Day." For the Yankees, that's just 29 days from today.
