EXTRA: Only 95 more “shopping days” ‘til baseball’s Opening Day

I sit here in a Midwestern winter chill eagerly counting down the days until baseball’s season for 2017 resumes activity.

And not just because I want to see some live game action – I also want the recurrence of warm weather. One of the reasons that baseball is the best game, it’s played in the best weather conditions – even though I’m old enough to remember the snowfall of ’77 when the Chicago White Sox kicked off the season (and existence of the Blue Jays) in Toronto.

YES, I FIND this countdown to be much more pleasant than the one already existing on the Internet by which you can be informed of just how many more days remain until Election Day 2020 (1,403, to be exact).

The idea of a pitcher’s duel, or even a sloppy slugfest, comes across as much more interesting than anything having to do with feeding into Donald Trump’s ego any more than it already is over-bloated. Particularly if it is accompanied by a Polish sausage and a scorecard -- which I invariably will be the only person in my section of seating who can actually fill it out!

So it is 95 more days until the baseball season begins April 2 with the New York Yankees traveling to Tampa, Fla., to play the Rays, who get to kick off the season because this year is their 20^th season of existence.

Other teams begin play the next day, with the White Sox kicking off the season against the Detroit Tigers, while the Chicago Cubs venture off to St. Louis, where the Cardinals will begin their ’17 quest to prove to the world what all their fans seriously believe – that the Cubs’ World Series title of 2016 was the biggest of baseball flukes!

OF COURSE, SOME of us might find it hard to wait three more months for meaningful baseball.

In which case, keep in mind that we’re only 33 days away from the beginning of the Caribbean Series – the week-long tourney beginning Feb. 1 that will give us a baseball champion from Latin America.

Counting down the days 'til I can sit out here again and watch baseball

Or there’s the 69-day countdown to the beginning of the World Baseball Classic, which pits against each other the national teams of 16 countries with aspirations of wanting to claim to be the best in the world.

But then, if none of this is appealing to you (although I can’t help but wonder why), then there’s always the old standby countdown – only 359 more shopping days ‘til Christmas!

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