“There are only two seasons,” the iconoclastic team owner Bill Veeck once said, “winter and baseball.”

Veeck was the venerated huckster who brought exploding scoreboards, Disco Demolition Night, and the 3’7” Eddie Gaedel to the big leagues, so his interest in the changing seasons may have been more economic than aesthetic, but I doubt it. I think he said it for the love of the game.

I used that quote in last week’s Jamboree, but when it came time to write one of my periodic praisesongs to the grand old game, I thought I’d put it into service again. Spring is here, and I am giddy. There is such promise and possibility in the air, and all that bird chatter besides. In Spring I love the fresh green grass, the sight of a weeping cherry, the long-awaited opening of the outdoor drinking season. And, of course, I love baseball.

Baseball has had a rough winter, this we know. The steroid scandal is nothing but ugly. The pathetic non-apologies of Messrs. McGwire, Giambi, and Bonds may well have provoked more honest anger than the charges brought against them. Add to that higher salaries, higher ticket prices, and the overexposure of Johnny Damon — ESPN’s Peter Gammons recently compared him to Paris Hilton — and it’s fair to say the game took a few (well-deserved) lumps this winter.

But now winter is gone. Baseball is here. And nothing could be a better tonic for the game than to just get out there and play. The gray gives way to flowers, and a bitter season is put to bed. In place of snow and steroids, we get triples in the gap, long lazy flies, and the 6-4-3 double play. We get box scores. We get highlights. We get the majors and the minors: the Tourists opened on Monday. We get Jim Thome, Albert Pujols, and Vladimir Guererro in the batter’s box, Tim Hudson, Carlos Zambrano, and Keith Foulke on the mound. We get hanging sliders. We get inside heat. We get whiffs and shots and pop-ups. We get the crack of the bat. We get Johan Santana. We get David Ortiz.

And we get to start the year in a way we haven’t since 1919: with the Boston Red Sox as defending world champions.

Play ball.

(Jay Hardwig is a writer and teacher. He can be reached at smardwig@charter.net)