“Spring Training” are words almost as magical for me as for the baseball players who participate and compete for a place on Major League rosters. Yesterday the St. Louis Cardinals made their selections for their 2021 roster and re-fired my imagination with possibilities for stars of the future. Names like John Nogowski, Jacob Woodford, Austin Dean and Edmundo Sosa suddenly became part of their plans for the season.
I always imagine that one or more of these players are going to transform the team in unexpected ways, delivering key hits, closing out crucial games, making game-saving catches in the outfield. The development of baseball players always surprises the fans and even the coaches, more than athletes in any other sport. Oh sure, the decision to put them on the Opening Day roster proves the shrewd judgment of the manager and coaches, but the sudden development of a rookie into a star often takes even the experts by surprise.
Spring Training is the season of inflated hopes. I remember attending my first one– the Red Sox camp in Fort Myers in 2007. Daisuke Matsusaka was the talk of the Major Leagues, a Japanese pitcher for whom the Red Sox had paid exorbitantly. The anticipation was in the air, even though I didn’t get to see Matsusaka pitch. I remember the first evening; it was rainy and chilly, and I wondered why I had come to Florida, but the next day it broke into the sixties, and the PA announcer chirped it was 33 degrees in Boston. The crowd cheered.
But when you see new players assigned to your team heading north, you feel that unwarranted optimism that they will make all the difference in the team that just barely missed the playoffs last season. In the Cardinals’ case, it is the difference between the Division championship and the League Championship– the extra hitter that would drive in a crucial run.
So the Cardinals signed Nolen Arenado over the Winter, and if anyone could make a difference in a line-up, he could. But then you look at the middle of the line-up and you see him and Paul Goldschmidt, and you think: what else they got? You can’t score runs with two hitters!
So you think of Dylan Carlson, who is still rookie-eligible, and you know he could make a difference, both offensively and defensively. Then you think, but what if one of those guys gets hurt? Who else do we have? Then you think of the young prodigy Tommy Edman, who can play infield and outfield and hits the long and short ball.
Finally you think of the guy who had the best spring on the Cardinals, John Nogowski, and you imagine him rising up to transform the team as no one expected. And you remember why Spring Training is the season of new hope. Here is a guy who was cut by the Athletics, played Independent League ball in 2017 and had one game in the Majors since then. Now he’s back in the Show.
Now the season of hope is over, and the season of proof begins. Still the anticipation, still the near certain knowledge this team will have the right stuff. Got tickets to see Wainwright pitch on Opening Day. To see Arenado swat. To see Goldschmidt’s smooth stroke. Maybe even see Nogowski pinch hit. Play ball!
