“For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.”

-Ernie Harwell.

Baseball: the national pastime, the sport that broke the color barrier, a game that stretches the generations.

But what is it about baseball that makes it so special?

It is the timing after a long winter, now filled with the warm sun beating down and never ending summer days, or is it the nostalgia — the memories of playing catch in the back yard with your dad and playing in the sandlot? Maybe it’s a combination of both, but really it’s much more than that.

Although you can make an argument about any sport, baseball just seems to be timeless. It is always changing, but it stays the same.

More than a hundred years later, ball players still use the seemingly archaic in wood bats and leather mitts, where other sports have evolved to the lightest and most efficient lab produced materials.

Even how its played different than most. It’s not a game constrained to time, it’s the defense who is in control of the ball and it’s simply a game about getting home safely — hitting a ball with a stick.

Baseball, truthfully, is a game for everyone. You can have a 275 lb., Prince Fielder at first base and standing next to him the 190 lb., Don Kelly. Both doing essentially the same thing, hitting a ball with a stick.

And to be part of a game is like nothing else. Whether listening to it on the radio, watching it on TV, or being at the game itself, the atmosphere is different in each medium and unique. Its slow pace gives way to calm, conversational talk and then with the smack of wood on that rubber ball, the excitement is brought out of us.

What baseball does best is put us on the edge of ours seats in anticipation. As fans we sit, waiting patiently for the pitcher to throw the ball, from there thousands of possibilities run through our heads – will it be a strike, a ball? What if he hits it? Is it deep enough for a double, can the fielder make the play?

And then it happens, the ball is thrown and in an instant only one of those thousand things happens, then it repeats and we are held to our thoughts.

A game of numbers, it brings out our inner nerd as we rattle off batting averages and ERA. Furthermore, these stats let us compare the stars of today to the legends of yesterday.

And what other game has a song about it, which is recognized by people of all ages?

Now, as Harwell said, the winter has passed. Opening day is around the corner and even the hardest working blue collar workers will take a sick day, the white collar businessmen come out of their spacious offices and kids ditch school – all to come together and be to be part of, what some consider, a national holiday.

In Detroit, opening day is like a block party – with fans dressed in orange and blue filling the streets. It’s so popular, even if you don’t have tickets to the game – which sells outs weeks before – you can still watch it in every bar downtown. Even places like the Filmore will play the game, with fans filing in to see.

For many, it is the official start of spring and signifies the best time of the year with the warm sun shining down, cool beers in hand, delicious food sizzling on the BBQ, and of course, baseball.