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My first five years working for newspapers, I covered four major league teams. Spring training was a mental drain, basically six or seven weeks of clubhouse introductions. I could not understand why so many baseball people called it the best time of year.
After a while, I got it. Yes, there’s the warm weather, the comfort of routine, the general lack of night games. But really, the reason is that spring training is the only time when everybody gets to be optimistic. In a game built on failure, there is value in that.
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