Blue Jays players including R.A. Dickey (left) and Russell Martin (right) warm up under the palms at spring training in Dunedin, Fla. on Sunday. We see the boys dressed in blue tops and blue shirts with white pants jogging into the photo. Behind them tall palm trees sway.

Blue Jays players including R.A. Dickey (left) and Russell Martin (right) warm up under the palms at spring training in Dunedin, Fla. on Sunday.
Photo Credit: CP Photo / Frank Gunn

Hints of summer baseball dispel the late-winter blues

It’s the time of year when Canadians wonder if winter will ever end.

I’ll spare you a rundown of winter’s many, unpleasant ramifications, but–praise the lord–we can now get a distant glimpse of the light at end of winter’s dark tunnel.

That light is baseball.

Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson, the 2015 American League MVP, is being counted on to lead the team to the playoffs again this season. We view Donaldson from ground level from the right of the batting cage connecting with a ball during a beautiful swing from the right-hand side. The azure sky above is cloudless.
Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson, the 2015 American League MVP, is being counted on to lead the team to the playoffs again this season . © CP Photo/Frank Gunn

Canada’s boys of summer, the Toronto Blue Jays, begin playing exhibition games this week. God’s in his heaven and all’s right with the world.

Forget that those games are being played in Florida. Television and newspaper reports take us there–at least in our minds and hearts. Winter is approaching an end.

In another month the Jays come north–first, to play a couple of exhibition games at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium and then–after trip back to Florida to play Tampa Bay–they face Boston in their home opener April 8.

Richard Griffin is the award-winning baseball columnist for the Toronto Star. He joined RCI by phone from Dunedin, Fla. to talk about the competition to make the team and why so many people love baseball.

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