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Today’s front-porch visit is for all of you who feel a little stressed. Okay, I guess I can rephrase that: It’s for all of you. You understand.   

Since about 1997 — for better or worse — I’ve kind of figured part of my job was to offer the readers something that is different from what they get from their other news sources. This source is just the good news. I kind of like that.

And here’s some of that good news: Baseball, as we speak, is full swing. People at any time of the day or night can grab a baseball and bat in their minds and go to the nearest sandlot and leave everything else behind in the dust. You gotta do that sometimes.

Listen, don’t you ever lose that wonder that comes from deep down in your soul – or, if you already have, grab ahold to it again, if it’s the last thing you do. It’s the ability to dream big. It’s seeing a homerun in a sunrise. It’s seeing a bases-clearing double in a red rose blooming outside the back door. It’s waking up every day as if it were Christmas morning.

Be the young man who steps up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, two outs, bases loaded, down by three. You’re in the World Series. With one perfectly-timed swing of the bat, send that tattered leather ball sailing over the fence and trot the bases like the ol’ Babe himself, and listen to the wild applause of 60,000 strong at the game.