I love the weeks leading up to the MLB season

By Rikki Greenberg

The countdown to Opening Day has begun.

An undeniable urge to step onto the baseball field by the old elementary school hasn’t gone away since the beginning of March and won’t go away until April 6th.

I relish the weeks before the MLB official season start. It’s the anticipation of what stepping on the field is going to be like, how clubs are going to perform when the I’s are dotted and the T’s crossed and whose going to have the better can of trash talk.

This kind of thinking may put me in the minority, but I’m ok with that. Most people look forward to the season where the real juice is, but I’m pouring the Emergen-C packets in the H20 now. Before you think it’s the enhanced water talking, let me explain why I’m bursting in the weeks before any cleats sink into the beautiful baseball dirt. And it’s a lot more than just the money has been set aside for a 2009 season wardrobe. The saved paper stares back at me like the beady-eyed stack of $5 bills in the Geico commercial

1) Spring Training will be over. Goodbye Cactus League and Grapefruit League and hello to American League East and National League Central.

2) I haven’t bought any tickets yet, but I’m pretty sure a certain TSB staff writer is checking out the prices on Stubhub right now…

3) The Yankees multi-million dollar off season makes me sick (CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and AJ Burnett), but the curiosity of how this crazy talented team is going to perform is getting the best of me. Damn those Yankees!

4) Even though Nick Swisher is not a headliner on the Yankees 2009 roster, I’m still looking forward to seeing him trot onto the field at the new Yankee Stadium.

5) How about that new Yankee Stadium?! I guess it’s not enough to have Gold Glove winners, a feared lineup and two of the best pitchers in the league right now, so the Yankees just had to throw in a $1.3 billion new stadium in the mix. Can someone else be the cool kids for once?

6) There’s just enough time to hit up Wal-Mart, Target, Dominick’s and Jewel for new MLB gear. I could go on MLB.com, go crazy with the plastic and buy tons of super cute White Sox T-shirts for my debut at U.S Cellular Field, but I’m cheap so Wal-Mart here I come!

7) The winter temperatures in March are not cool, but I’m hoping that by Opening Day the weather will warm up enough so that I can finally enjoy an attempt at a glowing tan.

8) The ballpark menu isn’t exactly the healthiest, but the experience wouldn’t be the same without it. In order to prepare for a summer of hamburgers, beer and cotton candy, I’m working out religiously and eating nothing but organic foods until then.

9) The 2009 NCAA Men’s Division I National Championship is the same day as Opening Day. I don’t think life gets much better than crowning the National Champion and watching the White Sox home opener (Cubs also open in Houston that night) in a 24-hour span.

10) The switch to baseball has already been made. It’s only a matter of weeks before I become Ms. Baseball and watch nothing but until a) White Sox and/or Cubs get eliminated or b) World Series features two teams I don’t really care about.