So close I can smell it...

This is, frankly, my least favorite time of year when it comes to pro sports. Football's season is over after yet one more unsatisfying Super Bowl (I'm a vicarious Steelers fan, given some family and friend loyalties), leaving us with nothing but a gaping maw of...basketball.

Everyone get so up in arms about college basketball. I just don't get it. The season just goes on and on and on. There are HUNDREDS of teams to try to keep track of, dozens of divisions, new "stars" every year who are always proven to be over-hyped when they get to the NBA. And don't even get me started on things like the deplorable graduation rates of front-line college athletes, the lackluster education any 0f them acquire traipsing around the country playing road games, the HUGELY over-paid and over-worshiped coaches, etc, etc. Oh man, and THE NEVER-ENDING TIMEOUTS...lame.

And professional basketball is just so...ego-driven. LeBron James? Way to alienate an entire state, dude. So ugly and cynical. The less said the better.

But baseball. BASEBALL!!! Pitchers and catchers are in camp! We're reading stories about how quirky and (allegedly) lovable ManRam is! Breathless reports about Albert Pujols! The Pirates and Mariners fans are talking about how this could be the year! Okay, maybe not the Pirates fans. They're realistic and embody "long-suffering." (Quick aside--one of my friends is friends with a journeyman MLB bench coach who spent a few seasons with the Pirates. Apparently they make all they coaches pay for their uniforms. What IS that?) And the PHILLIES. Oh man. We're gonna have four 20 game winners this year! JUST YOU WAIT. We're gonna win 140 games! Sweep every NL East series--home AND away! Ryan Howard's gonna hit 93 homers and put up 354 RBI! We're gonna be YOOGE.

Okay, let's go ahead and all admit to ourselves that, as a city entire, tempering our expectations a wee-bit might do us all some good. If you remember the Vet with any fondness at all, you know that the south end of Broad Street is far too often where dreams go to weep bitterly in a corner. And this is Philly--shouldn't we always be the town that is pleasantly surprised that we did so well instead of being angry that our overblown demands weren't met? It's gonna be a great season one way or another. Realistically, I'm betting we see more than one no-hitter from our rotation (studs! all of 'em!), the offense actually gets its act together, and we won't miss Werth at all. Trust me--we're not gonna miss Werth. He was fun to watch, but mostly because his defense was always so...exciting. Know what I mean? IS IT OPENING DAY YET!?!?!?

(Hockey? We have a hockey team? Do they even show hockey on television anymore?)