Hot Stove Happiness

The baseball winter meetings just concluded in Orlando, Florida and I for one am sad to see them end.  I love following the trades, the signings, the rumors of trades, the rumors of signings; heck, I love to see who gets taken in the Rule 5 draft.  I've been checking out www.mlbrumors.com several times a day.  This is the time of year, when it seems that Santa, in the form of your favorite team's general manager, just might bring home enough goodies to make your team a contender.  Real baseball junkies can't wait to see the new players come spring.  We subconciously begin to absorb the new guy's mannerisms, so that we can tell at a glance that it is he, even without checking out his number, which we are also curious about.  And right now, in the dead of winter, we can hope that the guy that we just got will blossom or have a career year or resurrect his career and lead our team to a championship.  Such hope generates the kind of warmth that takes the sting out of these 10 degree mornings.  It's the time of year that I am reminded of Rogers Hornsby's famous quote:  "People ask me what I do in the winter when there's no baseball.  I'll tell you what I do.  I stare out the window and wait for spring."