It's not often I venture outside the Jefferson City area to cover a regular-season baseball game, but when Saturday's tripleheader was moved from Blair Oaks to Camdenton, I dug the scorebook out of my desk drawer, packed up my backpack and headed south on Highway 54.
The first day of spring did not disappointing. The weather was perfect - although I can feel the back of my neck turning red into a mild sunburn as I write this - and I saw another great baseball game, as Blair Oaks defeated St. Elizabeth 2-1 in eight innings.
I've been starving for baseball, as I hadn't covered an official high school baseball game since May 28, 2019. That was nearly 22 months ago, when Blair Oaks beat Fatima 1-0 for the Class 3 state championship in O'Fallon.
That game was less than a week after an EF-3 tornado passed through the Jefferson City area, and right around the time the Missouri River flooded for week after week that summer.
With the past 12 months of the coronavirus pandemic, that last baseball game feels more like 20 years ago, rather than two.
COVID-19 canceled the 2020 spring sports season before it even had a chance to begin. Thankfully, the high school summer baseball league in Central Missouri continued, giving many of us an outlet we desperately needed after the sports world paused for two-and-a-half months.
I don't mean to ignore the other spring sports. I know the track and field, girls soccer and boys golf and tennis teams shared the same lack of experiences last spring as the baseball teams did.
But as a kid, I grew up at the local baseball park, spending practically every day there from mid-March through early August. A baseball field is like a second home to me, much like a newspaper office.
Sure, I covered more baseball games than the average sportswriter did nearly anywhere else last summer, but there's nothing like springtime baseball.
Spring baseball is a sign of rejuvenation, that better days are yet to come.
Last month, we were hanging on through several days when the temperature never cracked 20 degrees. On Saturday, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was T-shirt weather.
We've come a long way during this pandemic. As I took in the sights and the sounds during Saturday's baseball games, it made me wonder if we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
All I know is I don't want to look back. The view in front of me is too beautiful to look away.