February 23, 2011
Mom, Apple Pie and Baseball
One of the sure signs that winter’s icy-cold grip will soon give way to warmer temperatures and spring flowers is the opening of Baltimore Orioles’ spring training.
Although some of my best childhood memories growing up in Carroll County came from listening to Orioles baseball on WTTR radio in Westminster – I’m not a rabid sports fan. In my family that job is held firmly by my wife. The only occasions in which I have ever heard my otherwise mild-mannered quiet wife, the child of generations of pastors, raise her voice, is when she watches sports.
As a matter of fact, my renewed interest in following the Baltimore sports teams, golf or other more esoteric sporting events such as the Le Tour de France, is a result of the entertaining thrill of watching my wife watch sports.
So, as you may now understand, no winter snowbird hiatus in Florida is complete without the obligatory stopover at the Ed Smith Stadium and sports complex in Sarasota.
And you may already be aware, there is something affirming, if not wonderfully distracting about baseball, especially when you put the national pastime into the context of our nation continuing to strike out with a malingering economic malaise that has been prolonged and exacerbated by the faltering economic errors and parade of foul balls emanating from Washington.
Kevin Dayhoff - The Tentacle: Baltimore Oriole spring training - Mom, Apple Pie and Baseball
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48° 25° Tomorrow 
