If it’s Spring, it must be Baseball Season.

I remember it so clearly the first time I fell in love. It was with the 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers, the World Series that year was classic. I was hooked, forever and permanently. The Dodgers were my team, and 1982 Rookie of the Year Steve Sax lead the way into my heart.

I didn’t grow up in Dodger country; in fact, I grew up in Giants Territory. Which, is of course one of the longest lived rivalries in Baseball. Somehow, though I persevered. Of course, the second time I fell in love – with Eddie this time - I found out that we were mismatched in one crucial area. He was a born and bred Giants fan. There were some rough years when we couldn’t watch a Dodgers-Giants game together, but we’ve both mellowed. That, and we moved to Mariners land and could get behind a team together (although, neither of us are fans of the DH rule).*

Now, mostly my Dodgers love comes out in comments like this when reading the paper “Guess who won yesterday?” and “Guess who is in the lead in the NL West?” And, of course I get those questions back about the Giants. We even watched a game together on Palm Sunday (Giants won – it only hurt a little bit to type that), and have tickets to a Mariners-Giants interleague game in June.

One of the remaining sticky wickets in our relationship over this issue, however, is Barry Bonds. I tend to think that all evidence points to a wee bit of chemical enhancement. My starry-eyed 10 year old, and my husband (as well as my mother, who converted to Giants love in the 90s) tend to think that any possible steroid use came accidentally. It’s a fine line to walk in discussions with Xavier. He just read a biography of Bonds where it says he didn’t take anything (“See, mom, it says he didn’t take any drugs”). I of course don’t want to squash either his reading or his baseball love, so I smile and nod. It’s hard to watch my cynical side collide with my forgiveness side.

Anyway, enjoy Baseball season – watching it, going to a game, Little League and Ponytail Softball (is that still what that’s called?) and a pick up game now and then.

*on a total side note, Congratulations to Ritchie Sexon for his 1000th base hit yesterday – a Home Run. Maybe the Mariners will have a better May than they did April.