Baseball's back!

Probably the most inspiring thing that's happened in the last four days. Source

I've always felt that the best function of the All-Star Break is reminding fans how good we have it between April and September: there's never more than one day off in a row, and if you pick a secondary team to root for, there's always something to monitor. Then we have four full days without our teams taking the field. Sure, there's the home run derby and the All-Star Game itself, but those are mere distractions.

The All-Star Break is a subtle reminder that summer doesn't last forever. The days of daily baseball are limited, and though we're guaranteed 162 games per team per year, we should always be bracing ourselves for the offseason. As they say on Game of Thrones, winter is coming. Luckily for us, that's still a distance down the road - there's still the second half to play.

The Red Sox will take the field again tonight, when the Yankees make their first 2013 trip to Fenway Park. Is there a better way to kick things off than a homestand against a struggling (but still hated) rival? This year has been full of schadenfreude for Red Sox fans: long DL stints for Derek Jeter , Alex Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, and even old friend Kevin Youkilis have the Yankees on the ropes.

Even with injuries to so many key players, the Yankees are just six games behind the Red Sox in the AL East, and there are thirteen more games between the two clubs before the end of the season. I learned long ago to never count the Yankees out, so while I feel pretty good about the Red Sox chances, things could still change rapidly.