Jay Resha’s Westword Sports: Tournament Time

February’s worst-kept secret is its brevity. But honestly, at no other time do three days feel so important…and also hold so much promise.
 
Let me explain.
 
As I dutifully report to you this morning, another icy sunrise greets me. Temperatures are in the teens and in some spots, it looks like we still have about two feet of snow, with the snowbanks much higher. Yet we are just two weeks from March, and folks who are in tune with the seasons can see the differences from just a month ago. The sun is higher now, clearing the backyard trees at last, for a few hours anyway. Getting into the car is surprisingly comfortable, if it’s left in the sun. And no matter the temperature, melting takes place each day to any ice and snow left unprotected by shadows. Even if it’s just a tiny bit.
 
You know, enough to refreeze at night and add to the driveway’s unwanted hockey rink.
 
But enough about weather. For a special time of the year looms ahead.
 
The Super Bowl – we’re NOT discussing it today, though I am optimistic that our Pats just Maye be perennial contenders again – always feels like a big rebirth.
 
Though college football’s playoff seems to creep later and later into January, it is more like an extension of the New Years Bowls, which really belong to last fall. By contrast, pro football playoffs are like an entirely new season.
 
So…to me anyway…a sense of beginning accompanies the NFL’s big game each year, as it kicks off what Maye be the most fun stretch of the sports calendar – one that is even more packed this year due to the Winter Olympics.
 
Consider this: in the next ten weeks, in addition to chasing red-white-and-blue gold medals, we’ll also give witness to the Daytona 500; high school winter sports tournaments and championships; MLB spring training; college basketball’s big bracketed Madness; college hockey and its companion Frozen Four; the Masters; and of course, the Boston Marathon.
 
By then – from my lips to divine ears – spring will be in bloom and all this snow and ice will be forgotten, or at least pushed off the front page. And it will seem like it went by quickly, although right now there are grumbles each time the car starts, and it is sometimes hard to tell whether the engine or the guy holding the key is the louder grumbler.
 
So, good luck to your favorite players and teams over these next five fortnights. Stick with westwoodlivingsports.com for the best local coverage around (hell, it’s the best local coverage we have EVER HAD in the 02090!) and I’ll see you at the Bader Gym, or the Canton Ice House, or out on the road, representing and supporting the green throughout tournament time.
 
Warmer days are ahead, no matter how bleak it seems right now. And sports are heating up – it Maye even rival the “most wonderful time of the year” !
 
Questions, comments, mistakes caught? Any and all feedback is welcomed! You can reach me at jayresha@comcast.net any time!