@STEVERUSHIN
Every pilot has a pre-flight checklist, the routine maintenance required before takeoff, and so it is with the baseball enthusiast, who requires a honeydew list to post on the fridge, tasks to be completed by Opening Day, before we go wheels-up on another new season.
□ BUY NEW BATS. Little League softball and baseball have a new standard this year, rendering composite barrels illegal, to be replaced by bats with a “wood-like performance,” while further enriching the youth sports/sporting goods industrial complex.
If history holds true, it will be difficult to leave Dick’s Sporting Goods without also acquiring eye black, batting gloves, elbow shields, wraparound shades, high-topped cleats, a new catcher’s mitt, home and away pants, a red belt, a five-gallon bucket of balls, a burlap feed bag of…