I get it. In lots of the nation, it’s that a part of the winter the place it looks as if it’d by no means finish (although it’s been fairly delicate right here). The attraction of spring coaching, no matter anybody tells you, is merely seeing the solar and heat (although it was fairly chilly in Arizona not too long ago). When the video games begin, followers could let you know they’re handing over to take a look at a sizzling prospect or a brand new pitch somebody is engaged on, however actually we simply tune in to see the sunshine. To know that it appears to be like like that someplace not all that far within the grand scheme of issues, and that it’ll feel and look like that wherever we’re quickly. If I write the phrases, “Chilly beer on a heat day,” you instantly start picturing it in your hand.

However that doesn’t imply that within the opening days of spring coaching we’re so starved for something that something qualifies as information and even fascinating. The feeds have been full of those slapdick exhibitions for the previous couple days:

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In this town, for example, it was a yearly tradition for the truly bereft of benefit to society to break down Jason Heyward’s swing and the changes they were sure they saw, and the evidence it provided that he, indeed, would actually hit in the season to come. He never did. Something like this goes on in all 30 baseball towns.

It’s batting practice. Every player looks good in batting practice, they’ve been doing it almost all their lives. Where else do we get this kind of thing at the beginning of training camp? You never hear that some left winger looks great shooting into an empty net in September. Sure, it’s a nice little nugget to see players taking swings again to let you know spring training has started again, but that’s it. Using this for real analysis would be the definition of drinking the sand.

This will be quickly followed by a breathless overanalysis of spring training results. There are more than enough out there who want to lose their mud over a homer in the sixth inning of a game in Peoria off some pitcher wearing No. 87 who may, may throw 13 innings in the bigs this year. But at that moment, it’ll be a sign that whoever that batter was is headed for a big year. Bank on it.

It’s cold, it’s dark. But that doesn’t mean we’re saps.

Another “fear” dispelled

Whenever some Helen Lovejoy is out there screaming about transgender athletes, one cliched strain of argument is that their child will simply not be able to compete. That all girls’ sports will be dominated by transgender competitors and no one else will ever win a thing.

Lia Thomas has heard this a bunch during her swimming career at Penn. She heard it all the way through to winning the national championship last year Well, it took all of a year for one of her records to be broken:

Not that anyone who argues against transgender athletes will be paying the least bit of attention. But there has been no evidence or example of a transgender athlete warping a sport or competition in a way that can’t be matched by anyone else. It’s an ignorant scare tactic, and here’s a prime example.