Baseball returns from its sleep-inducing offseason early next week with a wake-up jolt.
Thirty major-league camps will open in Florida and Arizona for the start of spring training, vying for attention with a rogue camp in Bradenton, Fla.
Financed by the players union in response to the owners' scarcity of interest in the current crop of free agents, the island of misfit millionaires adds another intriguing storyline to what looks to be a wild spring.
Despite their best intentions, baseball's owners somehow find themselves in great shape heading into 2018.
The constant carping about pace of play, the increasing number of tanking teams and the antagonistic attitude toward its own players haven't dulled interest in the national pastime.
The last two World Series were seven-game classics won by teams executing near-perfect teardowns and rebuilds. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are now in the same lineup with the Yankees, and 23-year-old Japanese star Shohei Ohtani brings his high-wire act to the Angels.
Home runs are back in vogue after a record-setting 6,105 balls cleared fences in 2017, presumably without an assist from modern chemistry. Extended netting should make all 30 ballparks safer for fans.
And the possible return of bullpen carts has piqued the curiosity of even the most jaded curmudgeons.
With baseball back in business, here are some of the storylines we'll be following this spring and onward.
