Nothing is more right than a radio with baseball on it--Daugherty, Cincinnati.com

"The first pitch was at 1:05 p.m. from Port Charlotte, on the west coast of Florida. First game of the year. I wanted to hear it. I slipped the transmission into "D" and myself into "N." As I drove, I powered down the window, just enough. It was 56 degrees. Life can be good, if we let it.

• "We'll be back with the action and the lineups on a beautiful day for baseball on the Florida Suncoast ..."
• Marty Brennaman said on the radio, beginning his 36th season of calling Reds games. Baseball in February is purely a state of mind, and I wanted a hunk of that state. I got off Interstate 275 at Route 50, and headed east, vaguely.

Nothing is more essentially right than a radio with baseball on it.

• It's not complex and, as such, it is welcome: back porch, stars, cold beer perspiring. Or as was the case Wednesday, car aimlessly pointed east. "Wild headin,' " Van Morrison would call it. "Whereabouts unknown."

Marty, Cowboy and Thom, cruising the river of time, welcome visitors, extended-stay guests. The Reds are family.

• The radio guys offer six months of family reunion. Every year. Starting now.

"If you're ready now, the starting lineups for today. First for the visiting Reds, leading off and play- ing center field, Willy Taveras ..."

• If we're ready? Of course we're ready. Who wouldn't be?

Tuesday, I dressed in layers and cursed the gods of weather and fate. Wednesday, I power down the window and wink at the world. Baseball is back. Better days to come.

• This is the day I miss Nuxie the most. He was a little kid in the booth on this day. It was his Christmas. Ballgame today! Joe Nuxhall's voice sounded like better days ahead. Life without him is diminished. But we still have Marty and Jeff Brantley, a latter-day Joe.

• We still have spring, when hope is an industry.

"A ballclub, we both agree, that has the potential to be better than the one we saw last year," Marty says to Brantley, who agrees. I'm on 50 East, passing through Owensville and Monterey and VeraCruz. The wind through the open window mingles with the baseball on the radio, a psyche-soothing combination that is strawberries in wintertime.

Brennaman told me Monday that, 36 years into it, he still starts every spring wondering if he still has it, the unique ability to call a game honestly while also engaging his listeners.

• It's an intimate act, calling a baseball game, involving trust, respect and appreciation.

• We take our baseball broadcasters personally here, as personally as we take the Reds.

Each year at this time, the Hall of Famer Brennaman will climb to his perch behind home plate, gaze at the little jewel of a Florida ballpark below him and regard the microphone with slight terror. He needn't worry.

"The lineup today," Brennaman says to Brantley, "you could almost make a case this is close to the lineup we'll see on Opening Day."

• The game unfolds. The Solara motors east, away from everything but the wonder of the day and the call of the game. Brantley marvels at Edinson Volquez's changeup. Brennaman wonders what effect the World Baseball Classic will have on the Reds who will leave Sunday to take part. Brantley ponders the speed at the top of the Cincinnati lineup, and the opportunity it offers Joey Votto to drive in runs. Brennaman notes the tiki bar in left field. And so on. And so on.

I am intrigued by 33-year-old Jacque Jones, a guy whose once-bright career has found the ditch.

• No game validates the Glory of the Second Chance the way baseball does.

I think Jones can be this year's Jerry Hairston Jr. Jones got his eyes fixed this offseason, then went to Mexico, where he hit .314 for a month of winter ball.

• "I went down there and just started enjoying the game again," Jones told Mark Sheldon of MLB.com.

• Yes. I rolled on Route 50, toward Hillsboro, Blanchester, deeper into the country. I started enjoying the game again.

"Willy Taveras will lead it off," Brennaman announced. "Left-hander Carlos Hernandez for the Rays. The first pitch is way inside, and this game is under way."

• "And," Brennaman might have added,

• "not a minute too soon."" via Radio Daily News, 'A Great Day to Surf the (radio) Waves'

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