The Perils of February

Spring Training is officially full force today in Yankee-ville. Today marked the Yanks first full team workout, accompanied by the requisite pics, which, though not particularly exciting or interesting -- or sometimes even visible, really -- still get me excited for the start of baseball season. After flipping through various channels yesterday, and realizing the sports options consisted of golf, hockey, bowling, and lacrosse, even fuzzy spring  training pictures are a light at the end of the tunnel. That tunnel is the end of winter, and it starts in February, after the Super Bowl and before March Madness. It's a long stretch, patch worked together by basketball. Don't get me wrong ... I like basketball. It's just not baseball or football. And it can't compare to the glory of September (and hopefully October). When football is beginning and baseball is coming down the (hopefully meaningful) stretch. 

February is just an awful sports month. And there's the hockey. ALL THE HOCKEY. Even in New York, with all the sports fans I know, I don't know a whole lot of hardcore hockey fans. But as an avid twitterer, I see them often. And they are quite the vocal bunch. I'll give them this: there is no one who loves their sport more than hockey fans, except maybe soccer fans, who also seem to dominate in February, and which also is a sport I have zero interest in..

Granted, there is basketball. My Gators are having a great year in basketball, and it seems as though it's anyone's tournament this year, while at the same time seeming like it isn't Kentucky's or Duke's, which is alone a reason to celebrate. And it is my first year on the Brooklyn Nets bandwagon. Due to a lack of televisions at my current job, I haven't seen as many Nets games as I'd like to, nor have I been to the arena yet. But Brooklyn has been my home for the last 16 years, and any team that plays here, I'll support. Even if it's the Islanders. It can't pain me to root for hockey any more than it's going to pain me to root for Kevin Youkilis.

Speaking of Youk ... I've had a hard time accepting past Red Sox in Yankee uniforms. Some were tougher than others. Johnny Damon? Harder than Wade Boggs, but easier than Roger Clemens. But Kevin Youkilis? If A-Rod hadn't broken my heart so many times -- he's the ultimate "I-love-you-baby-I-didn't-mean-to-hurt-you" kind of guy -- maybe, just MAYBE, I could give Youkilis a shot. But thanks to A-Rod's faulty hips, Kevin Youkilis will be shoved down my throat like a teaspoon of cinnamon. No easing into it. He's just so synonymous with Boston for me. And I really have an irrational hatred of all things Massachusetts. I've been booed there more than once for wearing a Yankee hat, and my parents lived in Worcester, which, if you're unfamiliar with it, be thankful. And then there's the Patriots. And Youkilis is married to Tom Brady's sister! He's a Red Sox, in the most irreversible of ways.

Until he hits his first walk off home run. Yankee fans are fickle like that.

But at this point in the sports year, I'll take it.

At least February is a short month. A short, depressing, cold, hockey-filled month. And if you can get through Valentine's Day and the Slam Dunk Contest, March is around the corner, with St. Patrick's Day and March Madness, which leads right to the start of baseball season. This year, the NCAA Sweet 16 is the appetizer to Opening Day. It's the rebirth cycle of the sports season.

And it can't come soon enough.