41 Days

Ohboyohboyohboyohboy!

Right now, in a field just off US-92 in Tampa, Joba Chamberlain is throwing a baseball. This fact fills me with joy.

Joba is not alone. Phil, Ian, Jorge, Mike -- a wonderful collection of names has already gathered in Florida.

Yes, spring training is finally upon us.

My fan stats have been trending solidly upward over the last few years. I broke triple digits in games viewed for the first time in 2006. While maintaining that level of success, the 2007 baseball season saw my fanship take a major step forward, as I set a career high in Yankee games attended (21). With age on my side, I think there’s plenty of room for growth there. In a few years, I might even contend for the triple crown: 100 games viewed, 20 games attended, and multiple playoff games attended. I could be primed for a breakout in 2008.

Unfortunately for me, that type breakout would wreak havoc on the other areas of my life. I was a pretty pathetic sight in August 2007. I developed a solid routine -- coming straight home from work in order to adjust my fantasy baseball lineup before the 7pm lock time, then spending the evening simultaneously following the Yankee game and reviewing the latest fantasy baseball news.

With Total BeastandJack (the fantasy squad) fighting for a playoff spot and the Yankees (a real baseball team) jostling for the AL East and Wild Card leads, there wasn’t much room for peripherals. I mostly stopped exercising that month, and my nutrition suffered. How well can a young man eat when he doesn’t allow time to cook a real meal before settling in for an evening of geeked-up sports? Answer: not well.

In addition, I started to lose track of my friends, and forgot almost entirely about moving myself towards some kind of sustainable career or lifestyle. By the end of August, I was living some kind of worrisome alternate life, which ran opposite to everything I would want for myself. I noticed a significant decline in my exposure to culture, socializing, and gratifying work. Those are all extremely important things, and they were all replaced by sports.

I was able to rectify most of those misdeeds during football season, but barely. I’m determined not to be one of those guys (i.e. the kind of guy I was last season).

I have a whole new set of goals this year. In 41 days, baseball games count. I’ll be spending that interval preparing myself to take a more relaxed approach towards the baseball season. I have mandated a toning-down of the fervor -- approximately a 30% overall reduction, though these things tend to be hard to police. I’ve set up some tangible parameters as well, and I’ll get into those in more depth as the season progresses.

If successful, this development -- called maturity? -- should go hand-in-hand with more progress in the other areas of my life, on top of helping me avoid the typical week-long funk at the end of the baseball season. Sustainable fervor, that’s the key.

It’s an experiment, and it’ll take resolve, but I think I can handle it. We’ll see how (and where) it goes.