By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Baseball is back. The fans are back … in the stands where they belong.

At least for now. I am going to hold out a sliver of hope that we don’t see such a recurrence of the coronavirus pandemic that Major League Baseball and its minor league affiliate leagues and teams will be forced to shut down for the second summer in a row.

I say all this with a particular eye cast up yonder to where we once lived, Amarillo, Texas. The fans there are waiting with bated breath

for the start of their Amarillo Sod Poodles’ season opener, which occurs in a few weeks.

The fans there have been patient, as near as I can tell. Their team won the Texas League pennant in 2019 in its first season in existence as the Sod Poodles. Then the pandemic struck. The Texas League morphed into the Central League, which means that once this season gets started the Soddies won’t be defending their pennant, at least not in precise terms.

Hey, that’s OK. If you’re a fan of the Sod Poodles — and I acknowledge that since I no longer live in Amarillo that I only can cheer for ’em from a distance — then all you care about is opening day and the festivity that goes with enjoying a day and/or night at the ballpark.

I wish everyone well, from the Big Leagues on down.

Oh, and be sure to wear your masks while cheering for your favorite teams. Deal? Good!