Phillies Spring Training Brings Renewed Hopes: Philly Sports Chatter

WARMINSTER, PA —Baseball is back.

Starting this weekend, the Philadelphia Phillies will begin playing spring training games with the first Saturday against the New York Yankees. (I'd list the team's entire spring training game schedule but it's a long one. You can view it on the Phillies website.)

After suffering the Super Bowl loss by the Eagles, seeing the Phillies play ball once again is just what the doctor ordered.

We Philly fans will perk up a little bit and breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that the Phillies playing games in the Grapefruit League once again mean that spring is certainly on its way and those days of an endless summer are right around the corner.

The news that Bryce Harper will be arriving in Clearwater is another good sign. Yes, our superstar won't be ready to play possibly until mid-season, but just having Harper in the dugout will provide an inspiration to all that the year is filled with —as legendary broadcaster Harry Kalas used to say —"High Hopes."

Spring training will do that.

Any team around Major League Baseball looks at spring training as a time of optimism, a time for a clean slate, and a time when anything can happen.

Even the Pittsburgh Pirates have high hopes around this time of the year.

All teams will have that optimism based on what the Phillies did last year.

They were basically dead in the water and had to fire Manager Joe Girardi. Most teams basically lick their wounds and close up shop, figuring the season is lost. But not these Fightin' Phils.

They rallied around then-interim manager Rob Thomson and did the impossible, making the playoffs after 11 years away. But, as we know, the story didn't end there.

The team kept winning in grand style and returned to the World Series after more than a decade. But they fell short to the Houston Astros.

So the team returns to spring training this year with high hopes and as hungry dogs. They got a taste of what a World Series is like and the support that the City of Brotherly Love provided. They want to bring home a championship to the city.

The Phillies and the Eagles have come so close in the past year. So the Phillies will work hard to get back there.

But so will all the other teams in baseball. They all saw what the Phillies did and now everyone —from the Arizona Diamondbacks to the Seattle Mariners —have that same itch.

They all have spring fever.

So teams will start playing spring training games and will be filled with optimism that this could be their year.

As they say, "Hope Springs Enternal."