What I Missed While Attending LTUE. . .The Four Most Exciting Words

The four most exciting words in sports were spoken last week. (Yes, this is going to be a sports post. If sports bore you, you might want to stop reading at this point.)

Each year, I try to remember to mark the day. The words? My friends tend to guess boring things like “Gentleman, start your engines” or “The Cubs lose again,” or even “World Champion Seattle Seahawks.”

None of them are even close.

The four most exciting words in sports are

Pitchers and catchers report

And I missed it this year. It happened on February 13th. I was attending Life, The Universe. . and Well, Not Exactly Everything.

People think the groundhog holds the key to the end of winter and the promise of Spring. He doesn’t. Nope. Spring starts when the Boys of Summer return to the desert to start another Spring Training.

Spring Training is a magical time. Every team still “has a shot.” The camp is filled with old veterans trying to hold on for one more year, and young, not-yet-rookies, who will probably spend another couple of years in the minors, but for a few glorious weeks get to imagine what it’s like to make the big club.

It’s funny really. I live in Utah, which is next door to Arizona. And yet, I’ve never made it down for Spring ball. They’ll start scrimmaging in a few weeks and I’ll pay my $9.99 for the Internet Radio broadcast of the games. The first few games are fun since the announcers are still shaking off the rust as well.

As a Seattle Mariners fan, I’ll once again mourn the passing of Dave Niehaus. No one could call a game like he could. He could make a 10-0 shellacking an entertaining listen. This is the third Spring Training without his golden voice to call the games. We still miss him and always will.

In mid-March teams will break camp and head north, except for the AZ Diamondbacks. They, with the Dodgers will head to Australia for the league’s first official games on March 22. For everyone else it’s March 31 or April 1. And that will be when we hear the TWO most exciting words in sports,

Opening Day!

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife and thirteen children.

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