Stars n Moons 2/14/07
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
By PJH Staff
Baseball’s back
The dust from Super Bowl XLI has settled, the NBA has yet to enter
playoff excitement mode and March Madness is only just revving up.
It’s that time of year, when sports fans find themselves staring
wide-eyed at ESPN, wondering what to watch and wishing for a
SportsCenter Top Ten comprised of something other than golf shots and
high school basketball Hail Mary’s.
But I’ve seen enough Boston hats and Vermont plates around town to know
that you’re all just as excited as I am about the beginning of baseball
season.
Pitchers and catchers report on Friday. Soon I’ll be incessantly
visiting redsox.com, the XM radio will follow wherever I go, and
visions of Big Papi homeruns will fill my dreams.
Old rivalries, quietly set aside for the winter months, flare back up
and the anticipation of the regular season sets in come spring
training. Who will lead the American East? Who will win the Cy Young?
From the first pitch in a spring training game, speculation as to who
will play in the 2007 World Series will begin and won’t cease until
those fateful nights in fall when this Red Sox fan hopes Mr. October
falters.
It doesn’t matter that fans will rarely see big-name players ’til opening day in April. All that matters is baseball is back.
— Melanie Stein
Cutters cut
Trackside with cold can of beer, a folding chair and a fistful of
dollars. It’s the Jackson Hole cure for cabin fever. The annual
Shriners Club cutter races is Wyoming’s version of the Daytona 500.
It’s even held on the same weekend, incidentally.
The Melody Ranch tailgate party is one of those special Jackson Hole
events where you see the soul of the community. Not the snowbirds gone
to Wickenburg.
Not the part-timers here for a holiday weekend. But the hardy-type men and women you’d share a foxhole with.
The kind of sturdy-as-a-fencepost Westerners that show up at two in the
morning with a toolbox and a cup of coffee when you’re broke down on
some back road. A can-do kind of gal, a get-’er done type of Joe.
Except now they tell me they can’t do it. Can’t run the cutters so a child may walk.
Dang, that chaps my hide. All winter I look forward to the pounding of
hooves, the roar of the crowd at the traffic light finish, and Hank’s
three-alarm chili warming on the back of his flatbed.
A community stands divided, red and green side, every President’s Day
weekend since I can remember. Split by a dollar bet but united in the
cause and one in the spirit. We gamble and give our money away, drink
and dance. And boy do they run. Just to see them run. God, it’s a
beautiful sight.
— Jake NicholsPERMALINK:
Stars n Moons 2/14/07 | Planet JH News Article: Stars & Moons
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