Pitchers and Catchers Report.

As any baseball fan knows, those four little words mean that the long winter thaw has begun and the National Pastime will soon return to ballparks across the land. Starting today, hope springs eternal for 32 MLB teams as we fans turn our attention to the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues. We'll spend the next few weeks over-analyzing every pitch, catch, and at-bat and hoping against hope that the dreaded injury bug stays away from our favorite team's spring home away from home.

This year my beloved Detroit Tigers look, on paper, to be one of the most formidable teams in all of baseball with a lineup of patient power hitters from 1-9 and a rotation that adeptly mixes young with old, right with left, and power with craftiness. Only time will tell if Detroit's cubs will finish the season as kings of the jungle or whether they'll fold like paper tigers. For now anyway, the Magic 8-Ball says: Outlook Good.

After all the off-field madness baseball has had to deal with recently, it will be nice to finally get back to the games. While there are certainly many questions out there that are still unanswered about the integrity of the game, the players, and the league's executives, I look forward to the day when we can return to focusing on what happens on the field without the black cloud of steriod allegations hovering over everything.

Today, I'll just enjoy the fact that the game I love is back for another exciting year.