<div><STRONG><FONT color=#808080></FONT></STRONG> </div> <div><STRONG><FONT color=#808080><A href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2003571058_kelley14.html?syndication=rss">http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2003571058_kelley14.html?syndication=rss</A></FONT></STRONG></div> <div><STRONG><FONT color=#808080>Steve Kelley<BR></FONT><FONT size=5>Baseball comes to the rescue just in time</FONT></STRONG> </div> <DIV></DIV> <DIV><B></B><BR><I></I></DIV> <DIV>The pitchers and catchers report today.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Repeat the sentence over and over again like a mantra. Close your eyes and relax, thinking about the warm desert sun.</DIV> <DIV>Take a deep breath and repeat the sentence again, imagining Felix Hernandez throwing his first fastballs of the new year to catcher Kenji Johjima.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Find your baseball Zen and listen to the pop of leather as the pitchers throw their first long tosses. Hear the crack of
the bat, a spring sound as familiar as the robin's first tweets.</DIV> <DIV>Soon the doors of Safeco Field will creak open. Spring is coming. Baseball's got next.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The pitchers and catchers report today.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>That sentence is among the most magical in sports, filled with promise and apprehension. It is the harbinger of hope.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Even if the pitcher is Jeff Weaver and you don't know if the Mariners are getting the Angels Jeff or the St. Louis Jeff. Even if the pitcher is Horacio Ramirez and not Barry Zito. Even if the catcher is Rene Rivera and you wonder what kind of shape he's in.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This is the day when spring springs eternal. When all things are possible. When you can convince yourself that the mass moves made by M's general manager Bill Bavasi will be the difference between worst and first in the American League West.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Maybe the
Mariners are right to be excited about right-handed set-up man Chris Reitsma. Maybe Jose Guillen is healthy again and ready to rip 30-plus home runs.</DIV> <DIV>If a baseball fan can't dream today he never can dream.</DIV> <DIV>Put reality on hold.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This is the first real day of spring and all things are possible.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Adam Jones can play the outfield. Jose Vidro can hit the long ball. Richie Sexson can hit in the clutch.</DIV> <DIV>Hernandez can win 20 games. Putz can save 50. And Ramirez can throw sick cutters that make hitters weak-kneed.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Spring is here and already the Mariners' Opening Day lineup is set. Manager Mike Hargrove could mail it in today. At least 23 of the 25 roster spots are taken. And the starting rotation will be Hernandez, Weaver, Jarrod Washburn, Miguel Batista and Ramirez — guaranteed.</DIV> <DIV>The pitchers and catchers report today.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Winter is dying.</DIV> <DIV>The swallows return to Capistrano. J.J. Putz returns to the mound.</DIV> <DIV>Ain't nature great.</DIV> <DIV>There may be 12 feet of snow in upstate New York, but catchers are fielding bunts again in Florida and Arizona.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The baseball fields in the Midwest might be hard as concrete and the fields in Seattle might by mucked with mud, but in Peoria, Ariz., the grass is thick and lush, the air is clean and dry and the white base lines are as sharp as an Ichiro single.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>All it takes is the first sight of Batista covering first on a sunny morning in February, or the first cuts in the batting cage from catching prospect Jeff Clement to let us know the wind, rain and snow that battered us this winter have passed.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The pitchers and catchers report today and there is nothing else quite like it in sports.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The opening of NFL
camps comes in the optimistic middle of summer, when the days are long and the living is easy.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>NBA preseason practice practically goes unnoticed, lost in the beginning of the baseball playoffs and the middle of the football seasons.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But the pitchers and catchers are the first wave of a sports tsunami.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>March Madness is almost here. Opening Day is coming. And the Masters is approaching fast.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The fire has burned out of the Hot Stove League.</DIV> <DIV>Better days are coming.</DIV> <DIV>So are the Red Sox and Yankees, Tigers and Angels.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The pitchers and catchers report today. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Baseball is back.</DIV> <DIV>This should be a national holiday.</DIV> <DIV><EM>Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or <A href="mailto:skelley@seattletimes.com">skelley@seattletimes.com</A></EM></DIV><p> 
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