Friday open thread: Spring! Spring?

It’s March! That means, theoretically, that winter is drawing to a close. But, at least here in Portland, winter didn’t actually arrive until almost literally last weekend - we had a ridiculously mild winter until February, which was colder than average but still dry, and then we got a couple dustings of snow, so I guess that’s what winter looks like here this year.

Spring means the days are starting to get longer - it’s already almost fully light in the mornings when I ride to work, which is a nice change, and it’s not even close to dark when I leave work. This is the time of year when northwesterners stop feeling like mole people and come out, blinking, into the light.

One of the other ways it starts to feel like spring for me is Spring Training. Baseball was my first sporting love as a kid, and although I don’t follow it as intensely or obsessively as I used to, I still love the fact that, starting now, there will be baseball on TV pretty much every day from now until October. The daily rhythm of baseball is pretty great; baseball lacks the intensity of soccer, thanks to the volume of games, but to me that’s its charm. It’s easy to just turn on a game, watch a few innings, and then maybe check out another game and do the same. It’s prettty great.

What’s your favorite part about spring, sports or otherwise? Are you sad to see winter go? Anything exciting coming up for you in March?