The Boring Days of Winter

I've watched very little sports since the Eagles lost in the NFC Championship Game three weeks ago. Sure, I watched the Super Bowl and I even caught a Saint Joe’s basketball game at the Palestra. Other than that, though, I would probably put the over/under on the number of hours Comcast SportsNet has graced my television at 2…and I’d take the under. The Eagles absolutely killed me. The game in Arizona sucked the passion right out of me for a while. Before the Phillies won, I guess I went into all big games with a certain understanding that I would probably be disappointed. But when the Phillies won the World Series, I started to expect to win the big games. That’s probably why this game felt more like a stomach punch than even the Tampa Bay game did in 2002/03. For about three weeks now, I’ve been searching for air and I’ve still yet to find it.

Aside from the tough Eagles loss though, my complete disinterest might be product of the very boring month of February. The sports calandar just doesn't give me anything to keep me watching right now. In the last ten years or so, I’ve become pretty casual about the Flyers and Sixers so I won't get too charged about about either of these teams until playoff time. Also, I don't jump on the NFL draft and fee agency bandwagon like many others. I can't get excited about football when we're about six monthes away from the start of training camp. I like college basketball, but I’m mostly interested in the local teams. Unfortunately, most of their games aren’t even broadcasted. So, here I am, stuck in the sports black hole I like to call February. I try to turn on the TV or WIP, but I can only listen to so much fallout from the Eagles season and I don’t need to psycho-analyze Donovan’s comments about the Eagles defense blowing the game in Arizona. It’s just not that interesting to me at this point. Oddly enough, I find myself much more engaged with President Obama’s economic stimulus that the happenings on Broad and Pattison.

Yesterday, though, I did see the light at the end of the tunnel. As I was washing my car in the 65 degree weather, the excitement of the upcoming baseball season really hit me. Pitchers and catchers report to Clearwater on Saturday and I count this as one of my favorite events of the year. Everything's fresh during Spring Training. From, here on out, we'll have a game just about every night. Plus, the start of the baseball season signals the arrival of warmer weather, lazy days, BBQs, Harry Kalas and all of the other cliched, sappy things I love about summer. Plus, we're the defending World Champions. How sweet is it this year that the Phillies are being chased and not doing the chasing?

Five days and counting.