By: Austin Alexander-November 14, 2006

The crack of the bat is gone, Joe Buck commercials no longer air, the champions have been crowned and another baseball season is in the books. Now we are forced to face a Fall full of football and reality television.

I’m reminded of a quote by Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby. When asked what he did during the winter, he responded, “I stare out the window and wait for baseball season to roll around again.” Many true hardcore, hardball junkies echo those sentiments.

The year begins in February with news of battery mates reporting to sunny Florida or Arizona’s desert. Within weeks, spring training games are on the tube and we watch, not because we care who wins, but because we catch our first glimpse of the summer soon to follow. Many more flock to the training sites and make the tour from team to team as part of their annual pilgrimage.

The regular season begins with baseball fans in every city rooting for the home team…“next year” has finally arrived!

Homeruns, no-hitters, record chasing, Web Gems, scandals, beanings and pennant races abound over the next six months and we watch with great interest! Then October rolls around and even casual baseball fans become rabid bandwagon members.

Pine tar, unlikely heroes and the annual annoyance of Tim McCarver grace the month of October. One team dog-piles, sprays champagne and has a parade…and then the silence begins.

That’s where we find ourselves right now. Peter Gammons only surfaces once a week and we have to live for the occasional trade rumors or free agent signings.

College football, formerly a Saturday sport, now litters the TV five nights a week. I guess that’s okay because our other options include Survivor, election results, and Deal or No Deal. I’d rather watch Jim Thome than Grey’s Anatomy, National League All-Stars instead of Big Brother All-Stars and give me Albert Pujols’ opposite field bombs over Emmitt Smith doing the cha-cha any day of the week.

The late commissioner of baseball A. Bartlett Giamatti perhaps said it best, “It’s a game designed to break your heart. It begins in the spring when everything else begins again and it blossoms into the summer filling the afternoons and evenings. And then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the Fall alone.”

Related article: It must be October!

.