Blue Jays: The weird things I’m missing about baseball

Without Blue Jays baseball to fill our April evenings, life feels even more disrupted than it already is, and I find myself missing some strange things.

I’ve always known that I’m a creature of habit, but it’s never been more evident than as Spring has begun.

This time of year is usually about optimism at the end of a long winter (especially in Canada), and even though the weather has warmed up, things just don’t feel the same. Obviously a lot of that has to do with the way that life has changed across the world due to the Coronavirus pandemic, and indirectly it’s caused a lot of subtle adjustments in my life, as I’m sure it has in yours.

It’s the small things that have had me chuckling at myself a little bit lately though, like when I realized that maybe it doesn’t feel like Spring to me because we’re still not watching a new baseball season like we would normally be right now. The start of a new MLB schedule has always been a sort of unofficial end to the winter for me, and this whole thing feels like we’re still stuck inside during the dead of January.

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I also woke up from one of the best naps I’ve had in a very long time the other night, and I’m pretty sure I know why I fell into such a deep slumber. Sure, the extra helping of potatoes at dinner was a contributing factor, but there’s something about a post-meal nap while watching baseball that just makes it seem like everything is right in the world. You know the kind, when you doze off in the fifth or sixth, but wake up in time to catch the last couple of innings. I have the re-watch of the 1993 World Series to thank for that.

I miss having almost nightly entertainment, and I’ll even admit that right now I miss the sound of Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler’s voices in my living room. There’s something about knowing that even if you’re busy and can’t watch the game on a given night, you can tune in on the radio on the go, or even just catch the highlights and look at the box scores later. For a baseball junkie like me, it’s amazing how much extra time I have now that I’m not being a nerd over stats and highlights all the time.

I even miss fantasy baseball, and the countless hours looking at more stats and match-ups, or offering trades and having an excuse to chirp at my friends. And speaking of that, I even miss the same from my Red Sox and Yankee-lovin’ pals too, both in real life and on social media. There just aren’t a lot of replacements for being able to text a friend and rub it in that his or her team stinks on any given night.

I realize that all of these things aren’t that important in the grand scheme of things, but when you add them all up it makes sense that I’m feeling a little lost at this time of the year, and I’m sure I’m not alone. Baseball would sure be a welcome distraction right about now, and the longer this goes on, the more I’m realizing how much I miss it.