“I see great things in baseball. It’s our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us”. 

~ Walt Whitman

It happens to me every September. One day I wake up and I realize baseball’s regular season is drawing to a close. And the weight of another long winter suddenly settles upon my soul.

You would think that the coming of playoff baseball would delay my September Blues, but it does not. The playoffs are not what I enjoy most about baseball. They are a “nice to have” NOT a “need to have.”

It is the daily rhythm of the game that I enjoy most. The journey from Spring Training to the last regular season game. The twists and turns of games that may not matter for months to come. The small moments that matter and especially the ones that do not really matter at all:

• The joy on the face of a rookie getting his first Big League hit
• Players in the dugout tossing sunflower seeds on one another
• A starting pitcher glaring in at the umpire
• A batter walking back to the dugout shaking his head

Regular season baseball is not quite as serious as Post-Season baseball. For me anyway, we have enough seriousness in our lives as it is. Regular season baseball gives us a respite from such grimness. From the winners-losers cruelness of our society.

Regular season baseball is something that can be experienced or savored or enjoyed. Drama without stress. Something that we can easily shrug off knowing that there is always another game.

Every year it is the same. September coming too early. The familiar blueness settling upon my soul