As you know, baseball is played largely in the summertime.  The greediness of the owners has extended the baseball season until November arrives.  I deplore all of that.
But to get to the point of this monumental essay, it has been the better part of four or five months since a Major League Baseball game has been played.  But now, the long night endeth.
Here in suburban New York, I am pleased with the start of the 2012 baseball season.  I am able to report to you that the New York Mets won their first four games and that they have suffered no defeats.  In itself, that is a great accomplishment because the Mets have been known to stumble and fumble.
But things are looking up.  I am pleased to say that the 2012 baseball season has begun.  And it gives me endless pleasure to know that the New York Mets are undefeated in their first four games.  And a new baseball season has commenced.  From the Mets’ point of view, I think they ought to declare this the end of the season and proceed into the World Series.  But that of course is not the way it is going to work.
In every year, there is the very long hiatus for lovers of baseball between the end of one season and the start of another.  There used to be a song that we sang in grade school called, “Welcome sweet springtime, We greet thee with joy.”  I do not recollect the rest of the lyrics to that song but if springtime brings the start of another baseball season you may mark me down as being very grateful.
 
E.E. CARR
April 9, 2012
Essay 647
 
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Occasionally Pop likes to write exceptionally short essays. Oftentimes Pop likes to write about baseball. As you may have already deduced, I figured this was a nice example of both. Also, the second essay that I’ll be posting tonight concerns baseball, and I’m in a mood to create themes. We had language day and singular-person-focused day; now it’s baseball-and-baseball-analogy-day.
Yeah it’s a bit of a stretch, I’ll get better at this, I promise. Or just abandon the ‘theme’ idea altogether. We’ll see.
On a side note, for my part  I am approximately as interested in sports as Pop is in the salvation of his eternal soul. My brothers are pretty much the same way, and though Jack will more or less watch anything, I suspect that at some level Ed is disappointed that one of his daughters produced basically a buncha nerds. His other two grandkids are rather sportsy though, so I guess it balanced out in the end.