Offseason Illustrated

Last week's Alex Rodriguez trade to the Yankees capped off what has to be the greatest baseball offseason ever. With the improbability of the deals, the sheer volume of transactions, the marquee names switching teams, the bizzare circumstances involved (Curt Schilling visiting a Red Sox message board at 2am? Clemens and Pettite ditching New York for the Astros?) during the winter of '03-'04, the hot stove was downright incandescent. So how can the actual games this year possibly live up to the drama of the past three months?

The answer is that it can't because baseball's offseason is now flat-out better than its regular season. I'm actually a little sad to see the hot stove league end. We can all agree that nothing can top the drama of the postseason, or the twinge of anticipation that comes at the opening of spring training. But the staggeringly protracted 162-game trek through the season wears me out as a fan. It's hard to get excited about a pennant race in May when you know that there are five months left of games against the Brewers, Rockies and Expos of the world. Conversely, each offseason it's hard not to get excited about the moves your team makes, as fan optimism reigns supreme: This trade will DEFINITELY shore up our bullpen. And I heard our rightfielder hired a nutritionist this winter- he's due for a monster year!

In fact, this winter's excitement has given me a grand idea: an entire magazine devoted to all of sports' offseasons. Imagine: coaching changes, free-agent signings, NBA Draft previews, hot stove rumors, NCAA recruiting battles, scouting combine reports, college football signing day hype... there's a limitless supply of fodder for such a publication. And you'd never have to concern yourself with unimportant fluff like wins and losses.