March is quite possibly the best month of the year. There’s St. Patrick's Day and March Madness; spring break and warmer temperatures. But for me, there’s one reason above all others that makes March a month better than any.

Baseball comes back.

For four months or so, all I had to cure my craving for baseball were endless trade rumors (few of which went through), fan frenzies over free agents (few of whom were very good), and obsessive visits to mlb.com.

Then the games began. True, a couple were played in February, but the real action began in March. Fifty-five players appeared in this Feb. 28 contest between the Cubs and the Giants, but 12 days later, 20 fewer players saw action in a game between the Cubs and the A's. About 25-30 players see action in a normal game. That makes for two asymptotes that tell their own story.

That’s one of the best parts about spring training — the new players. A good four or five dozen players are invited to each big league camp, and only 25 make it out. Of course, a team like the Red Sox won’t have many openings, but a minor leaguer with a good spring in the Marlins camp has a good shot of making the cut. Spring is a season of hope, optimism, and youth, and nothing epitomizes that better than spring training.

Then there’s the stats aspect of the game. I’m a stats geek, I’ll admit, so I have no trouble analyzing at a player’s OPS against lefties after the fifth inning at Coors Field. Same for a pitcher’s WHIP in the ninth inning against right-handed pinch hitters. You get the picture.

Stats don’t really count at this time of year — with minor leaguers taking most of the playing time for half the game and the veterans just warming up — but there’s something refreshing about fresh, clean stats to work with. Nonetheless, one shouldn’t take Ichiro’s 0-for-21 too seriously. Nor should I get too excited about Casey McGehee’s .643 average at this stage. I’m not choosing my fantasy team on these stats, to say the least.

I haven't been unhappy with football or basketball this year, but there's something about the words spring and baseball put together that make me unusually happy. Maybe it's because my favorite season corresponds with my favorite sport. Or maybe baseball is my favorite sport because spring is my favorite season. Or maybe spring is my favorite season because baseball is my favorite sport. It's all good.

And only 12 days until the first official game (Boston vs. Oakland in Japan, March 25). It can't come soon enough.