First Sign of Spring: Milwaukee Brewers, Bob Uecker on Radio

Today, while driving around and doing errands, I finally felt the approach of spring.

What was it?  (Hint, hint: if you’ve read the title, you already know.)  Was it that the days are getting longer and the nights a wee bit shorter?

Nope.

Was it that the snowfall we just got a few days ago started to melt today?

Again . . . no.

Instead, it was hearing Bob Uecker (along with partner Joe Block) call a Milwaukee Brewers game in Spring Training that reminded me that spring will soon be here.  Uecker is a Wisconsin institution, as he’s announced for the Brewers since the early 1970s — not to mention being enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, due to his skill as an announcer.

Hearing Uecker’s voice went a long way toward alleviating the otherwise cold, drab and somewhat dank day.  This despite the fact that I only recognized the name of one player from last year — Alex Gonzalez, who’s trying to make the team as a backup shortstop and utility player after suffering a season-ending ACL tear in early 2012 — and only a few of the names of the prospects, either.  (I recognized relief pitcher Johnny Hellweg, though — he came over in the Zack Greinke deal last year from Anaheim.)

Uecker’s voice was enough to remind me that soon, Corey Hart’s injury will be healed.  He’ll join Rickie Weeks, Aramis Ramirez, Nori Aoki, Yovani Gallardo, John Axford and others, probably by the end of April (which is Hart’s timetable, not the Brewers’, as the latter is sticking to the end of May initial diagnosis until Hart proves otherwise).

And because of the recent purchase of DirecTV in the household, I’ll once again be able to watch games (perhaps listening to Uecker on the radio, as I enjoy his call of the game so much), which I hadn’t been able to do since  the earliest part of 2012.

(Short answer as to why: I needed a break from TV.  I got it.  Now it’s back.  We’ll see how it goes.)

Anyway, it’s time to give three cheers for Bob Uecker, Joe Block, and the Milwaukee Brewers — harbingers of spring.

Hip, hip . . . hooray!  (Repeat as needed.)