MIght as well face, we're addicted to baseball

Today’s blog is going to be totally spontaneous. I’m just going to start thinking and typing (not necessarily in that order) and see what happens.

The Hot Stove season is a crazy time. Baseball fans that can’t wait for spring to roll around go searching for any little clue as to what their team might do or any team might do for that matter. We are starved for baseball news and any little thing can pass for news when it’s the off season. We read stuff about who is interested in whom (without really contemplating the absurdity of such thoughts) and we start throwing out our own scenarios as to what we think our teams can do.

That’s when it really gets bizarre. If you frequent a message board or two or listen to sports talk radio that has a call in segment, then you’ve heard some of the laughable stuff being talked about. I don’t need to give you any examples because you know exactly what I’m saying, don’t you? Heck, you might even be one of the crazy people out there making outlandish proposals.

We start circling important dates on our calendar like the dates for the GM Meetings (November 16-17, 2010) or the Winter Meetings (December 6-9, 2010). Some guys can’t tell you when their wedding anniversary is, but they sure as heck know the dates I just mentioned.

We throw figures around like $100 million without blinking. We pour over prospect lists and commit names to memory when we can’t even remember what we had for lunch the day before. We project. We predict. We lament. We anguish. We go through the full range of emotions and suffer anxiety attacks when there isn’t any news about our teams.

Might as well face it folks; we’re addicted to baseball.

We look for clues no matter how obscure they might be that will give us some sort of indication of whether or not a certain player is going to sign with our team. Carl Crawford loves In-n-Out Burgers? Really? We have them all over Southern California! Woo-hoo baby! We’re locked in!

We evaluate trades being made and wonder why our own team didn’t make a deal for such and such because that other team got so and so for nothing. David DeJesus for that? Never mind that DeJesus is just an average ball player at best (career .787 OPS – Yes, I took time to look that up).

We eagerly wait for the pre season predictions from the experts and then mock them as soon as they’re published. We even go so far as to believe we are jinxed if so and so says something good about our team and get upset when they say something negative.

We are an insane group.

We curse Scott Boras early and often. We hate everything he has to say but we can’t wait for him to say something about a player we’re interested in.

We loath the Yankees more than ever during the Hot Stove season because we know that they stand in the way between getting the player we want and having to settle for something less.

We talk about Plan A, B, and C when we can’t even plan what we’re having for dinner.

We pity Pirates fans. We harass newly minted Giants fans and can’t seem to find any A’s fans.

We praise the Twins, wonder what in the world the Mets are thinking and watch the Dodger divorce proceedings with the morbid curiosity of someone driving by a car wreck.

In some ways we talk more baseball now than when it’s actually baseball season. We make lists of the greatest this or the most over-rated that.

We stare blankly into space. We dream. We hope. We wish.

We check mlbtraderumros.com before we check what’s going on in the stock market, local news or the weather. It might be cold and rainy outside, but if our team signs a player we want, we feel warm inside.

We might not have a clue about world events, whatever is trending on Twitter or who is still on Dancing with the Stars, but we know that Carl Pavano is a Type A free agent and Hiroki Kuroda is a Type B. Just don’t ask us what our blood type is because we haven’t got a clue.

92 days until pitchers and catchers report (Feb. 13, 2011).