Feeling Green

The restlessness is returning. Two months since I was able to attend the last Reds game of the season, I feel an itch to go back to the ballpark. Yet there are still two and a half months until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training! It isn't even winter yet!

I thought being abroad would make me forget it was the off season, but no. With every chill that passes through me, every bit of wind that blows over the Yantra River, every molecule of fog that hides the mountains from my view, a bit of baseball warmth stirs within my soul. I am already imagining that first moment of the new year when you realize the days are starting to get lighter and that time in late winter when you can feel the air getting warmer. Green isn't just the color of the grass; it is a feeling. It is the warmth and the light and rebirth of everything.

As I look out my window, I can see the monument of the Assen Dynasty, which began in the 12th century and was about the last time Bulgaria was a major player in world affairs. The massive monument is black stone, built during the communist years and in the communist style. I think it is supposed to be imposing. It is not. How I would love to be staring out at the statues on Crosley Terrace instead, or perhaps the statue of Bob Feller in Cleveland or the statue of Roberto Clemente in Pittsburgh or the statue of Babe Ruth in Baltimore (yeah, Baltimore, where he was born.) I do find Bulgarian history interesting, but the Assens mean nothing to me. Give me Joe Nuxhall, Ted Kluszewski, and Ernie Lombardi!