Most folks enjoy the change in seasons and it looks like here in Lafayette County we’ve finally broken through to spring.

The tulips and buds are blooming and I — along with many of my co-workers — are sneezing away due to the high pollen count.

I love spring, but it is not my favorite season. No, my favorite season is also about to bloom in all its glory on Sunday when the first Major League Baseball regular season games are played.

I love all forms of baseball — from the Little League and college teams to the Big Leaguers — and can usually tell when baseball season is almost here because I break out in an itch of anticipation.

To me, it is the greatest sport ever invented and as a kid it was my first true love. I ate and breathed baseball. When me and my buddies in northern California weren’t playing ball in the street with a tennis ball or on a regular field with our Little League team, I could usually be found in the backyard throwing a ball in the air and hitting it.

And when I wasn’t playing it, I was watching the Major Leaguers on television or going to a big league game a couple times of year to watch my San Francisco Giants take the field.

Baseball was the driving force in why I wanted to become a sports writer and made journalism my career.

Today, I still enjoy keeping a stat book when I go to a game just to watch from the bleachers. On Saturday, I’m looking forward to catching my first Ole Miss game of the season when the Rebels take on Mississippi State. For more than a week I’ve been eying the weather forecast and the conditions are expected to be spring-like with temperatures in the 70s and sunny. Let’s just hope the Rebels can break out of their hitting slump and take the SEC series from the Bulldogs.

And on Sunday, my Giants will be one of the opening day games televised by ESPN when they take on division foe Arizona. It should cap a perfect weekend for the game I love.

I hope you all enjoy a fantastic weather weekend and the chance to cheer for the Rebels and your favorite Major League team. I know I will.

Rob Sigler is managing editor of The Oxford EAGLE. Contact him at rob.sigler@oxfordeagle.com.