As The Offseason Stretches Ahead…
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. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.
Possibly my most favorite baseball quote in existence, and yet it is so bittersweet to contemplate. We were lucky this year- not only were we able to see our boys win it all, we were some of the lucky few who got to hold onto baseball for just a little bit longer, see just a few more pitches cross the plate, enjoy just a few more cracker jacks in the stands, celebrate just a few more runs tallied on the scoreboard. We were afforded the luxury of more time in the sun, even as the weather turned cold. But as long as baseball is being played, it’s still summer- even if only in the minds of baseball fans.
The postseason celebrations and Schilling and Lowell hoopla have helped fill the void, and thank goodness for the hot stove season for helping keep the embers of baseball burning. And we are in the most comfortable position of all fans, since we can relish the joy of a successful year and reminisce on a season full of happiness.
But I confess, I’ll be glad when the ides of February arrive, and they’re back on the diamond again.
That is the perfect quote to sum up the offseason.
Although you still have
AggieLonghorn football and basketball to get you through until the first day of spring training.It wouldn’t let me strike through the Aggie part but I think you probably got my joke.
Time to get the other Mike re-signed now.
Is it just me, or does it already seem like 2 months since the World Series ended?? Seems like the off season is going to last forever. But thanks to our boys being the Champs and all, we Sox fans are the lucky ones. Now if I could just get my World Series DVD here a little bit quicker. :)
And thanks to sites like this one right here, the time between now and spring training won’t be quite so unbearable! :)
Love the quote…so true.
Thanks for sharing this beautifully articulated quote.
As the days shorten into December, it’s a comfort to know others have walked this lonesome road, and others still will walk it after we are long gone.
Here’s the whole piece from “A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings” of A. Bartlett Giamatti,
That is beautiful, Jean- thank you for posting the whole thing.
That last passage is stunningly gorgeous:
Wow…the O word: Offseason. For twelve years, I’ve hated this time of year. Ever since I started following the Sox at age 5 [first game was a game I was taken to on my birthday], I’ve always cried when the off-season came.
That passage is a brilliant and beautiful way of summing up exactly how I feel when the season ends.
However, I don’t consider the Offseason upon me until I know for sure if Clay is going to stay with the Sox. All the trade-talks about trading him for Santana are killing me slowly. Until I know he’s safe, I’ll always be on the edge of my seat.
At least we appear to be on our way to resigning Timlin.
Again, best freaking passages about the offseason, ever.
Soxx Girl I think we are all like that right now. I know it’s tough for the players to here their names mentioned in trade talks during the season, I can only imagine how hard it is for them in the offseason. You’re getting ready for spring training and right now you don’t even know which training camp in Ft. Myers you’re going to.
I love that piece so much. So much. I must have read it a thousand times in the offseason after 2003.
I have to admit, I’m still sort of pretending there’s still baseball going on, somehow. It started with going to the parade, and now I’m rewatching the games, analyzing them all to death, wearing Sox shirts all the time.. My friend and I are going to the film screening tomorrow night, and I feel like I might have to realize the season’s actually over now. But I’m glad there’s still stuff like this, just so we can savor the season a little longer.
Thank you, Jean, for the full quote. It is beautiful, inspired writing about life, New England, and baseball.
Ian: or if you’re even going to spring training camp in Ft. Myers, period!
Jess: you’ll have to report in and tell us how the screening went!