By Rory P. Pheiffer Sports Columnist Spring isn't here yet, but baseball does not wait for spring anymore.
Baseball seems to start earlier and earlier each year.
Spring training starts in February, exhibition games the first days of March, and opening day in late March. This year Major League Baseball decided to conduct opening day in Japan, forcing the Mets and Cubs to travel to another country to open their baseball season. As much as I'd like to tell you that all the signs that indicate baseball season has arrived are apparent, there aren't really any signs to indicate as such. The Atlanta Braves owned the National League East during the 1990s, and I don't expect anything to change in this decade. They still have a solid pitching staff and their batting order now has more solid hitters at the top with Reggie Sanders and Quilvio Veras.