The weather says it’s springtime. The calendar suggests as much, too.

Heck, even the newest edition of Mile High Sports Magazine says “Play Ball!”

Well, you (sadly) already know the deal. It doesn’t feel much like spring. We’re not even really supposed to be outside. The Rockies and Padres were supposed to kick things off tomorrow in San Diego but don’t even bother tuning in – nobody’s playing. A little more than a week from now, we were all going to meet up in LoDo for the Rockies home opener – a party that was supposed to take place on April 3 but has since been postponed until we don’t know when.

Sportspeople problems.

Nothing feels quite right.

And neither will our newest issue.

As is the nature of the magazine business, there’s a bit of lead time involved – there’s the writing of stories that are intended to be more timeless than a typical news story; there’s gathering artwork that matches, designing and then laying it all out. And there’s printing and binding, too. Twitter a magazine is not.

It doesn’t feel like baseball season and it doesn’t feel like we should be writing about it or you should be reading about it. But to be honest, our annual Rockies preview went to press right about the time the coronavirus story took off and swept the nation. The printing process began on the very front of it – the NBA had just stopped playing games, the CHSAA had just cancelled its state basketball championships – so you’ll notice a few references in there. Some of them might even be tongue and cheek, perhaps even argumentative. Hey, we were mad that our sports were being taken away. In hindsight, that might not have been the reaction.

But the stories about some of your favorite Rockies – Trevor Story, Ryan McMahon, Tony Wolters just to name a few – are still relevant. Aniello Piro’s feature on the late, great Roy Halladay is one of the best I can recall. And the annual contest to crown Miss Hooters Colorado is there, too – they were in the same boat, conducting life and business back in early March just like we’ve always done, not knowing what was ahead.

Within this issue, some of our great advertising partners are promoting things that they’re not even allowed to deliver amidst the pandemic; cut them some slack if you will. In fact, make sure to support them in any way you can during these tough times.

The timing of this one will seem a little funny, no doubt. Then again, hopefully it can provide a distraction, maybe even a little entertainment. After all, we can’t watch sports right now, but there’s no rules about reading about them.

Enjoy our newest issue and read it hoping that the baseball season ahead is right around the corner. And then we can all really and truly say:

“Play Ball!”