As a sports fan and a human being, I can't think of a worse time of the year than early February to mid-March. Football season is over. (Disturbingly, that was the title of Hunter S. Thompson's suicide note in February 2005. He suffered from chronic pain and apparently some level of mental illness and/or seasonal affective disorder.) Baseball season has not yet begun. Regular season basketball just doesn't do it for me. The nights are long, the days are too cold (February this year in Oregon was especially nasty). And similar to a dementor attack, sometimes it feels as if all the hope has gone out of the world.

But it starts to turn today. Major league baseball officially kicks off with its Japan Series today and tomorrow, and then all teams begin play in eight days. Tomorrow is the first round of the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. If you're a golf fan (which I am, marginally, such that I only really pay attention to the majors), the Masters starts in three weeks - right about the time it'll become obvious that my baseball team "just doesn't have it this year." Let the good times roll! Starting ... now.