Waiting for baseball

Editor's note: Mike Gunn is a junior at Cedar Rapids Prairie High School, working an internship at The Gazette through Kirkwood's Workplace Learning Connection.

By Mike Gunn, The Gazette

CEDAR RAPIDS - Rogers Hornsby once said, 'People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”

Spring training has arrived in the Major League Baseball, but as I look out my window there is only the early sign of spring. The ground remains partially white, but the air is getting warmer.

In gyms and batting cages all around the state, baseball has begun. It came with the crack of the bat from hitting a soft toss and the whiz of a good fastball. It came with the pop of a mitt and a bucket filled with baseballs.

Preparation for the season, however, is more than batting practice and throwing until the first official practice. Lifting and agility drills take place throughout the year.

Mentally, players must believe in what they are doing. If their mind doesn't believe the workouts, cage work and throwing will win a championship, it isn't worth your time.

Everything builds to one goal for every level of baseball. In high school, you put in all of the work to get to Des Moines. College, you work to get to Omaha. In the majors, you work for the World Series.

Baseball always waits for us. Under a blanket of snow or in an equipment shed, baseball always is there. Even as winter draws to an end, thoughts of warm summer nights filled with perfectly groomed diamonds wait.

Metal cleats on cement, fresh cut grass and perfectly chalked lines wait.

Here's to next season, filled with good teammates and good games - assuming winter doesn't come back.