As the first day of Spring Training games is upon us, it signals the beginning of a new season, one that will be filled with ups and downs, excitement and disappointment, frustration and feelings of valor.

My hope and challenge for you – the baseball fan – is to find as much enjoyment in the game as possible, regardless of the outcome of an individual game or the season as a whole. Remember that you are a spectator to some of the greatest athletes to ever play the game, and as such, be appreciative of their abilities and the work they put in that results in diving catches, game winning home runs or big strikeouts, as well as the little things, like drawing a walk, taking the extra base, or simply remembering to back up a play.

Unless you work in the front office of a Major League Baseball club, and are directly involved with the signing of players, you really shouldn’t take a team’s win-loss record personally. It’s not your fault. And while they’re not excused from honest analysis and criticism, please be respectful of the general managers – I like to believe that they are out there doing the best they can with what they have. I’m hoping that they want to win as much as you do.

Also, please be respectful of your fellow fans. No fan is better than another because of the team he roots for, the number of hats and jerseys she owns, or how long they’ve been season ticket holders. We each come to the game from our own place and our own background. Some choose to express themselves in ways that don’t completely vibe with how you or I might do it – and as long as they’re not blocking my view or being overly rude or obnoxious, I try and tolerate it and encourage you to do the same. If anything, use it to take a critical look at why you are a fan of one team or another — was it because you were born somewhere and your parents told you to be a fan of a certain team? Do you only cheer for the team of the moment? We each have our own reasons – just be aware of yours and respect that someone else’s may differ.

There are lots of great tools out there to help you understand the game better, and I encourage you to take a look at them. Statistics are just one such tool – they help to put past performance into comparable numbers in an attempt to measure and compare players. However, they do not tell the future – and when a player steps up to the plate, those stats go out the window and the beauty of performance takes over. I’ve been fortunate enough to see base hits that the statistics would say I shouldn’t have seen – and I am a better person because of it.

There are a myriad of books out there about the game – and I hope you’ll read one or two over the course of the season. I try and read at least 20, so that I can share some of them with you at BaseballBookReview.com. Find one or two, read them, and then come back and tell me what you thought of them. I’d love to hear your thoughts and learn from your insights. While you’re at it, try and support your local bookstores and libraries – they appreciate you being a fan of them as much, if not more so, than a big league ballplayer does.

Baseball is rooted and wins and losses — but you don’t have to be. A win for you should be any time you get to watch a game and see a great performance, or learn something new about the game, or see things from a different angle, or meet a fan who challenges your ideas and makes you reevaluate why you think the way you do. While a loss on the field may be disappointing, it doesn’t have to turn into a loss in your own life. Life is filled with enough hardships and struggles – baseball should be something to get your mind off of those things, not something to add to them.

With that – I hope this baseball season proves to be incredibly fun, enjoyable, engaging, entertaining and informative for you. Baseball has a lot to teach those of us who sit in the stands, or watch from home, or listen on the radio, or even watch online.

The other day someone mentioned to me that “you’ll never get rich selling your time, you’ll only get rich selling your results.”

This has sat with me since that time, and as I was watching MLB Network last night, I began to realize that this notion is true more and more, especially in the context of baseball.

I’ve been back-and-forth when it comes to my thoughts about free agency — I like that players have the ability (after six years however) to negotiate with any team they want for their services. After decades of the reserve clause, it’s only fair that they get to test their abilities on the open market and make the most they can, and that the market will bear.

However, as a fan, and as a member of the group that foots a lot of the bill for Major League Baseball, I don’t like how free agency has driven up the end cost of going to games. Tickets cost more, hats cost more, concessions cost more – you get the point. A team has to find a way to pay Superstar X for his services, and fans are often the ones they turn to, because for many years they were seen as a group who could be held hostage for their dollars. “Don’t miss out on all the action!” the team would say, or “don’t risk losing your great season tickets by not renewing, even though we stink and haven’t sniffed the playoffs in over a decade!” It’s classic scare tactics, preying on our fear of missing out on something great, complimented by the dangling of schwag or tchotchkes, along with coupons and ‘experiences’ all designed to get us to buy, and to buy more and more.

Nevertheless – this isn’t an argument for or against free agency or the marketing practices of baseball teams, but rather a time to look at our own lives and see if we’re getting the compensation we deserve. Look around a baseball stadium, and figure out who is getting paid by the hour, and who is getting paid based on their performance, and then figure out which one you’d want to be.

The usher who checked your ticket as you walked to your seat? Hourly. The beer vendor? My guess is by performance. The photographer in the first-base camera well? Could be either, but I’m guessing by performance, especially if she’s a freelancer. The first baseman? By performance.

Being paid based on performance is a scary proposition for some people, because it’s a mirror back on how much work you’ve put in up to that point. It’s when your decision to stay late and solve the problem gets rewarded, while your decision to have that extra scoop of ice cream and go the gym gets punished. It’s a marker on how much you believe in yourself to not just take on a challenge, but to be victorious.

For most of my life, I haven’t been one to sign up for pay-for-performance, but as I experience new things and develop new outlooks on life, it has become more appealing, because it gives me the opportunity to be rewarded for when I succeed, and to have instantaneous feedback when I fail. Certainly it doesn’t make sense in every circumstance, but it’s beginning to make sense in more and more of them.

I would really love to know how in the world there are members of the Baseball Writers Association of America who would refuse to vote for certain players for the Hall of Fame. For instance, I’m just about to watch Willie Mays talk with Bob Costas on the MLB Network, and Costas mentioned that Mays got 95% of the vote the first time he was on the ballot.

How could 5% of those guys not vote for Willie Mays for the Hall of Fame?

Somebody had better explain it to me,because I sure as heck won’t understand it otherwise.

If you’ve got some extra time and some brain cells that need a workout, take a read of Lookout Landing’s treatment of the discussion on framing pitches.

Basically – catchers have strengths and weaknesses when it comes to framing pitches, and it’s easy to think a catcher doesn’t do a good job when in fact, he does.