Winter lingers on Opening Day

Opening Day, baseball is back, spring has sprung.

So why is Marvin West lighting a fire?

The bank thermometer flashed 42 degrees as I drove through Maynardville in the pouring rain this morning. A freeze warning? Really? On Opening Day?

Welcome to East Tennessee, where they say the weather changes every 15 minutes. (It's supposed to be 70 on Saturday.)

"This is an inauspicious start to spring," I tell Sarah as I come through the door.

But today is a day to spring forward, so I put winter behind me anyway and get all giddy as Curtis Granderson makes a diving catch in center field. A quick check tells me that the weather is equally as bad in the Bronx as it is on Norris Lake. Guess that explains all the empty seats. At least the rain stays away...

Marvin tells me about the pleasantries he exchanged with Bob Knight, years ago, when he was president of the Basketball Writers Association. It seems Marvin was too busy to attend a luncheon. Which meant Knight didn't get to give Marvin an award. Which meant Knight also didn't get to beat up on a sports writer for two minutes.

Michael Kay and Ken Singleton repeat virtually everything Marvin and I notice about the game -- about three minutes later. It's not much better over on SportsSouth, where Joe Simpson actually says that the pitcher's job is to get balls over the plate. No kiddin'...

Marvin threw a log on the fire. I threw a candy bar in my mouth.

Ahh, yes. Opening Day. Baseball is back.

Even if spring has yet to sprung...