Baseball returns, and the internet trembles.

The devout among us spend our days filling our brains with bucketfuls of thoughts. When presented with a keyboard, we pour these thoughts into various molds and send them out into the world.

We find others who agree with our world views and we build ideas about why the ball moves the way it does. We create grids. We build structure. We invent games to prove we understand baseball better than baseball does.

We think we own this game that has lived for over a century.

Truth is, beneath the metal girders of our baseball constructions, the game itself grows organically. It grew as this country grew, and it spread through a war that could have killed our nation.

Baseball pretends to submit to our designs, but it grows and changes anyway.

This year, as we analyze the game and play along at home, the game will continue changing it to whatever it will be for the next generation. Seeds sprout now. They do not fit into the current framework, so it can be tempting to ignore them.

Baseball is alive, and we are given another glorious season to watch it grow.

Before long, our current conversations will be as obsolete and out of touch as the conversations the generations before us had. We will take our words and ideas and we will fade away.

Baseball, however, will still be played, and will celebrate yet another opening day.

Think about that, but when you are done thinking, play ball!