Now that the American sports clock has clicked past another of its major annual appointments with the Super Bowl in the books, only one sport can take the ball and start running with it, just as it has the previous 43 years and for decades beyond that: baseball.
So for baseball fans, the clock tends to run backward this time of year. As in, 10 days (or, about 240 hours) till pitchers and catchers hit the fields in Florida and Arizona, and 56 days (oh, about 1,300 hours) till Opening Day.
And like that last 15 minutes of your toughest class in school, the clock just can't move quickly enough these days.
This much we already know: Baseball will thrill us around the clock again in 2010 -- morning, noon and night. And the only thing it'll have in common with every baseball season before it is that it'll be different.
So, what will make 2010 unique? Here are a few glimpses at what will rock us around the clock until a World Series champion crowned:
Morning
Spring awakening: Once those first magical pops of the glove and cracks of the bat are offered up in Florida and Arizona, 2010 will be officially on the clock. And things will have changed before the first pop and crack.
The Cincinnati Reds have made the trip across the country on Interstate 10 and will be training in Arizona for the first time, making it a 15-15 even split between the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues for the first time. Having made some noise with the Aroldis Chapman signing and a few other moves that make them look like possible National League Central contenders, the Reds join their Ohio neighbors, the Indians, in Goodyear.
There also will be many new faces in new places, with John Lackey moving to Boston, Jason Bay joining the Mets, Roy Halladay with the Phillies and Cliff Lee with the Mariners -- among many, many others. Also, general managers Alex Anthopoulos in Toronto and Jed Hoyer in San Diego will be overseeing their teams for the first season, and new managers Brad Mills of the Astros and Manny Acta of the Indians will be running their respective camps for the first time.
Aces high: Arizona figures to be a good place to check up on the aces on the mend this spring. Jake Peavy is preparing to pitch his first full season with the White Sox after missing much of 2009, and D-backs right-hander Brandon Webb and A's signee Ben Sheets are returning after 2009 was a bust.
The Royals' Zack Greinke, the American League Cy Young Award winner, will be out in Surprise and the Giants' two-time NL Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum will be toiling -- for how much pay, we'll find out in the coming days -- over in Scottsdale, and Felix Hernandez will working alongside Lee for the Mariners in Peoria. Good starting pitching won't be hard to find in the desert this spring.
Of course, there will be plenty in Florida as well, with Lackey taking his first Grapefruit League action, Halladay turning in his Blue Jays blue for Phillies red, and Stephen Strasburg, the No. 1 pick a year ago with a bullet, drawing all eyes in Nationals camp every time he twirls the pea.
Opening Daze: It won't be the first -- that'll belong to Yankees-Red Sox on April 4 -- but the biggest Opening Day celebration might belong to the Twins, who are going topless for the first time since 1981 with the opening of Target Field on April 12. Best of all, Minnesota will have both its power twins -- reigning AL MVP Joe Mauer and 2006 MVP Justin Morneau -- jogging to the lines during introductions.
There will be ring ceremonies at Yankee Stadium and Citizens Bank Park as the season cranks up, and each of the 30 teams from Miami and Atlanta to Detroit and Pittsburgh to San Francisco and Seattle will put up the bunting, strike up the band and celebrate a new season.
Noon
An NL edge, finally? Now this really would make 2010 unique: an NL victory in the All-Star Game, to be played July 13 in Anaheim. After all, it would be the first NL victory since 1996. But, whether all their sluggers enter it or not, the NL might have a surer edge when it comes to the Home Run Derby.
Cardinals superslugger Albert Pujols now has teammate Matt Holliday at his side for a full season; Bay has switched leagues from a year ago as well; and Prince Fielder and Ryan Howard have already established themselves as members of the homer elite. With Arizona's Mark Reynolds and San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez joining the 40-homer club, the NL held the top five spots in homers at the end of last year. Milwaukee's Ryan Braun and Adam Dunn are other 40-homer threats.
For the league without the designated hitter, the NL is becoming the bopper league.
Hello again: Interleague reunions abound in the late spring and early summer, but there can be no better juxtaposition than these: Halladay returning to Toronto with the Phillies, and Manny Ramirez returning to Boston with the Dodgers. Consider that the longest ovation and longest, well, we'll see exactly what happens when Mannywood meets Boston Being Boston.
Hawk, Rat and God: With five-tool man Andre Dawson, manager Whitey Herzog and umpire Doug Harvey being bronzed and feted, this year's Hall of Fame class certainly will have its own personality. Although the Hawk will become the second player whose plaque bears the Expos logo, there's no question there will be a Chicago theme to his speech at the July 25 ceremony, when he joins the two white-haired icons of their respective roles.
Night
Stretch runners: By the time August rolls around, we'll know a lot more about how some of the darlings of the 2009-10 Hot Stove season have performed when the heat is on. And with the July 31 Trade Deadline, possibly stoked by an interesting crop of pending free agents, we will see even more change.
Will the Mariners' winter work pay off in the AL West standings? With 2009 postseason hero Lee in Seattle, will the Phillies' acquisition of Halladay push them to new heights in 2010? Will Sheets still be in Oakland, probably meaning the A's are in the hunt, or will he have been shipped elsewhere a la Holliday? Will the Twins have made the right moves to build around their twin powers?
By the time the Trade Deadline passes and the stretch begins, we'll know a lot more.
On any given day: Parity figures to be a theme in every division in baseball in 2010. Without naming names, it's safe to say more than 20 teams could be very much in the mix come Sept. 1.
Both the AL West, with the Angels' three-year run threatened by the Mariners, Rangers and A's, and NL West figure to be multihorse races. The AL Central and NL Central have the same potential, especially if the Cubs get back in the conversation. And with the AL East and NL East without runaway favorites either, there's a good chance the standings will be a must-see in more cities through September than even the last few years of unprecedented competitive balance.
Perhaps more than ever before, it's all up for grabs.
Repeat offenders? Still, when it comes down to it, the Yankees have a very reasonable chance to be the first back-to-back winners of the World Series since their 1998-2000 threepeat, and the Phillies have a chance to make even more NL history. Another title and they would become the first NL team to win three consecutive pennants since the Cardinals in 1942-44. And if both were to happen, it would be the first back-to-back World Series matchup since 1977-78 with the Yankees-Dodgers.
Then again, that doesn't take into account the Cinderella story (see: 2007 Rockies) that is always a possibility before the clock strikes midnight.
But, hey, it's only dawn now. It's not midnight for a good long time, thankfully.
Dawn is breaking. It's warming up now. Check your clocks.
It's time for ball.
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