BY TOMMY BENNETT

In print | Published February 22, 2007

So, the NBA All-Star game was last weekend. The Super Bowl is over. March Madness seems like it starts later every year, and it isn’t even March yet. And, of course, baseball has only just opened its spring training camps. Sure, Champions League is great and you can still follow golf, but even the most diehard sports fan has to admit that late February is harsher than the wind through the Wharton tunnel.

Look at things from a different angle, though. When there aren’t any games being played, everyone (players, coaches, general managers, sportswriters, your obnoxious friend) has license to predict and claim whatever they like. Brian Sabean, Giants general manager, reports that Barry Bonds looks better than he has in four years. Kerry Wood, oft-injured Cubs hurler, says he’ll stay healthy this year by relying less on his curveball. And the big whopper: Jimmy Rollins says the Phillies are the team to beat in the NL East.

What makes this time of year so exciting, I think, is captured fantastically by an ad on TV for the NFL Network. There are a bunch of these that are variations of the same theme, but the one I like was aired during this year’s NFC playoffs. In it, they show a bunch of people making horribly incorrect (if not completely unforgivable) preseason judgments of the New Orleans Saints. “Reggie Bush will just get buried in New Orleans,” we see the groom say to the best man; “he needs the exposure of a big market.” Next, we see a middle-management type swinging a golf club while he mocks his friend on the phone, “No I didn’t draft Drew Brees. What am I? An idiot?” These predictions, of course, are terribly wrong, and the punch line of the commercial is, “Time to get your story straight” (presumably with some help from the NFL Network). But what I like about all this is that it expresses so well the innocence of spring.

At times like these, our fantasy predictions, March Madness brackets and preseason rankings are unmarred by contradictory facts. Obstinate Red Sox fans are free to think Dice-K will pitch 35 perfect games this season; delusional Angels fans believe Gary Matthews, Jr. will justify his ludicrous contract this off-season. Who are we to pop their bubbles? That’s what the regular season is for. The freedom to make preseason predictions is the freedom to be utterly and wildly wrong.

Which brings me back to Jimmy Rollins. Whether or not the Phillies are the team to beat coming out of spring training, what does it say about a potential contender if they don’t treat themselves like they are? And what does it say about fans who don’t think their team has a legitimate shot? Or, to put it another way, what does it say about a team if the mere bravado of spring training is taken to be bold statements of self-purpose and determination? It speaks to the pattern of defeat in Philadelphia if everyone stops to notice just because (gasp!) a player has the audacity to think his team can win.

If you ask me, that’s all February talk. In the deep dark depths of winter, it’s 15 degrees outside, you haven’t seen the sun in a week and your favorite running back just injured his ankle in the Pro Bowl. Well, friends, it’s time to look outside. The weather is warming up, the sun is coming out, the sun is staying up longer and baseball is just around the corner. Maybe some of you out there want to play Punxsutawney Phil to my vital springtime exuberance, but who are you to tell me Cole Hamels isn’t the second coming of Steve Carlton and that Ryan Howard won’t break the home run record this year?

Tommy is a senior. You can reach him at tbennet1@swarthmore.edu.

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