A baseball fan's internal calender doesn't quite line up with any store bought calender. Any fool can buy a calender at Wal-Mart that will tell you January first is the start of a new year and December thirty first is the last day of the year. Well, toss that thing in the trash. The year officially started on November second, not January first. That was the first day after the World Series ended, and for fans of every team except the Giants, that was the first day of the next year. There is always a little lull after the World Series and before the Hot Stove season starts up. It's the slowest time of the year, the wait for your team to start building up for the next year at the Winter Meetings. 
    The Winter Meetings are an exciting time, especially when your team has nowhere to go but up. As for our lovely Brewers, things really started heating up this last offseason. We picked up Marcum in exchange for Lawrie, and started things off right. This was a great pickup for a team struggling with starting pitching. Our action didn't stop at the Winter Meetings though, as we made a blockbuster trade for Zack Greinke involving a lot of good young players. It was met with mixed feeling across Brewer nation, but there was no debating we needed the hot young arm to compete within our division.
    The next big time of the year is Spring Training. The first day of spring training gets my blood pumping every year and then starts irritating me three days later. Spring Training is awesome because you get to see your favorite team in their new batting practice unis, playing catch and swinging a bat again. Then you realize games don't start for another week or two, and they don't mean anything. They are still  fun to follow though, until your boys start going down to injury. Spring Training games don't mean a damn thing except to get guys warmed up for the regular season. This is something a lot of baseball fans know, but forget at times. I do it on occasion, right Brad Nelson. It's hard not to get caught up in Carlos Gomez batting .400 though, it has to improve doesn't it? God I hope so.
    This Thursday is Opening Day, the day it all sinks in. Unfortunately for the Crew, there are a bunch of holes due to injury, but the hope is still there. Every year, you turn on the first game and no matter how bad your team looks on paper, while watching that first game, you have hope. Hope is all a Brewers fan could have until this year. We look stacked on paper, and if our guys come back healthy and play as well offensively as last year, we'll be good. With our new pitchers, if they stay healthy, we should have no problem making a run for late October. When the year wraps up in late October, remember how fun it was to watch this team put it all on the line. 
     When Gallardo takes the mound on Thursday, have faith that this year could be special. As a Brewer fan, that doesn't happen every year.

Ronald