Thank God, baseball season is finally here!

.@AstroTerry is photographing all @MLB cities from space w/ #ISSPlayBall. Details: http://t.co/dEBQnsX79y #OpeningDay pic.twitter.com/2t0KWlupTh

— NASA (@NASA) April 6, 2015

Daniel Norris has a 92 MPH fastball and the best strikeout ratio in the minors. Oh, and he lives in a van:

THE FUTURE of the Toronto Blue Jays wakes up in a 1978 Volkswagen camper behind the dumpsters at a Wal-Mart and wonders if he has anything to eat. He rummages through a half-empty cooler until he finds a dozen eggs. “I’m not sure about these,” he says, removing three from the carton, studying them, smelling them and finally deciding it’s safe to eat them. While the eggs cook on a portable stove, he begins the morning ritual of cleaning his van, pulling the contents of his life into the parking lot. Out comes a surfboard. Out comes a subzero sleeping bag. Out comes his only pair of jeans and his handwritten journals. A curious shopper stops to watch. “Hiya,” Daniel Norris says, waving as the customer walks away into the store. Norris turns back to his eggs. “I’ve gotten used to people staring,” he says.

This is where Norris has chosen to live while he tries to win a job in the Blue Jays’ rotation: in a broken-down van parked under the blue fluorescent lights of a Wal-Mart in the Florida suburbs. There, every morning, is one of baseball’s top-ranked prospects, doing pull-ups and resistance exercises on abandoned grocery carts. There he is each evening, making French press coffee and organic stir-fry on his portable stove. There he is at night, wearing a spelunking headlamp to go with his unkempt beard, writing in his “thought journal” or rereading Kerouac.

He has been here at Wal-Mart for long enough that some store employees have given him a nickname — “Van Man” — and begun to question where he’s from and what he might be doing. A few have felt so bad for him that they’ve approached the van with prayers and crumpled bills, assuming he must be homeless. They wonder: Is he a runaway teen? A destitute surfer? A new-age wanderer lost on some spiritual quest?

The truth is even stranger: The Van Man has a consistent 92-mile-an-hour fastball, a $2 million signing bonus, a deal with Nike and a growing fan club, yet he has decided the best way to prepare for the grind of a 162-game season is to live here, in the back of a 1978 Westfalia camper he purchased for $10,000. The van is his escape from the pressures of the major leagues, his way of dropping off the grid before a season in which his every movement will be measured, catalogued and analyzed.

If a baseball life requires notoriety, the van offers seclusion.

If pitching demands repetition and exactitude, the van promises freedom.

“It’s like a yin-and-yang thing for me,” he says. “I’m not going to change who I am just because people think it’s weird. The only way I’m going to have a great season is by starting out happy and balanced and continuing to be me. It might be unconventional, but to feel good about life I need to have some adventure.”

It’s a start, I suppose. I love the game, but it has not escaped my attention how few kids watch baseball anymore, and the marathon games have a lot to do with it. If we want a future for the sport, they have to speed things up! They could always start enforcing Rule 8.04, which says if no one’s on base, pitchers must deliver the ball within 15 seconds after they have it in their hands. It’s supposed to be called a ball, but I’ve only read about it, not ever seen it. But I’d much rather see them lower the mound, stop changing pitchers every inning, and enforce a standard strike zone (yes, boys, instant replay):

The verdict from Major League Baseball’s pace-of-game committee is in, and according to Fox Sport’s Ken Rosenthal, tomorrow MLB will announce three rule changes designed to speed up games:

1. Managers must challenge replays from dugout.
2. Batters must keep one foot in box unless an established exception occurs.
3. Play to resume promptly once broadcast returns from commercial break.

If properly enforced, these changes might actually have the desired effect of speeding up the game without measurably altering it otherwise. The first one change probably won’t do much—I can imagine a worst case scenario where managers amble out to argue with an umpire, before returning to the dugout to challenge—but the second two could.

I knew this would happen:

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball has eliminated its requirement that Cuban players obtain a license from the U.S. government before they are eligible to sign with big league teams.

The decision could speed the negotiating process for Yoan Moncada, a well-regarded 19-year-old infielder who left Cuba last year with permission from Cuba’s government.

MLB Executive Vice President Dan Halem sent a memorandum to teams Tuesday, saying the new policy was warranted following changes made last month by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to Cuban Assets Control Regulations. That followed President Barack Obama’s announcement in December that the United States and Cuba were re-establishing relations.

A Cuban player previously had to obtain an unblocking license from OFAC before he could sign a contract. Halem told clubs that under the new rules “all Cuban national prospects must provide a sworn statement.”

Ernie Banks, 83.

“Hey Ernie, let’s play two!”

Wow, look at all the press following her around! And of course she threw a perfect strike:

Chicago won!

#JRW's "National treasures" on A1 of Sunday's @chicagotribune. Very cool: pic.twitter.com/kZRFhaZVzn

— Rich Campbell (@Rich_Campbell) August 24, 2014

If we had to lose to any other team, I’m glad it’s Jackie Robinson West. And here’s hoping the other city team kicks Vegas butt, now that I know their wingnut coach told them they were playing “for American freedoms.”

It was a great game, and Taney almost pulled it out. But they didn’t. (Sports Illustrated jinx?) And I don’t even mind, because they’ve put the joy back in baseball that I haven’t felt since the Phillies won in 2008.

And of course there’ll be a parade.

I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Mo’Ne was good but she didn’t have her A game. And out of the 13 kids on the Vegas team, 12 of them bat over .300, so Vegas bats got them an early lead. Then they tacked on five insurance runs at the top of the 5th, and though Taney threatened twice with three men on, they never had the hits to bring them home.

A side note: Bad officiating is part of every sport, and despite the frustrations, you just have to suck it up and deal. But the home plate umpire had one of the most baffling and erratic strike zones I’ve ever seen, and I imagine that had a lot to do with Mo’ne’s performance:

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — Mo’ne Davis didn’t have her best stuff when she and her Philadelphia teammates needed it most, and Las Vegas took advantage.

Dallan Cave and Brennan Holligan hit two-run homers, lefty reliever Austin Kryszczuk got out of two big jams, and Las Vegas beat Philadelphia and its star pitcher 8-1 in the Little League World Series on Wednesday night.

Davis, just the 18th girl to play in the Little League World Series and the only one to win a game on the mound, took the loss.

“Mo’ne didn’t have her A game today,” Philly manager Alex Rice said. “At this point, we’re playing to get to Saturday.”

The victory puts Las Vegas in Saturday’s U.S. title game and sends Philadelphia into an elimination game on Thursday night against Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West in a matchup of inner-city teams. The Great Lakes champion beat Pearland, Texas 6-1 on Tuesday night in an elimination game.

“I think it’s terrific,” Rice said. “I’ve been looking forward to playing Chicago since we got here.”

Davis, the darling of the sports world with her amazing success and poise, was both masterful and ordinary on a night made short because of pitch-count rules.

She allowed three runs and six hits and struck out six in 2 1-3 innings before leaving after 55 pitches. That makes her eligible to pitch again in the U.S. championship game on Saturday.

Davis played first after her stint on the mound and was switched to right field in the top of the sixth, but she dazzled her opponents more than once on the mound with off-speed deliveries and tantalizing pitches just off the plate.

“She’s very crafty,” said Kryszczuk, who picked up the victory. “She’s a great pitcher. That triple in the first was huge and then she settled down. Great job by us to get this victory.”

I just want to say that for the first time in my baseball history, winning is secondary. It has given me such joy to watch this Taney team, and to see the entire city come together to support them. (There were 9,000 more people at the game last night than there were at the Phillies game yesterday.) This city loves this team, and nothing will change that. No matter what happens, there will be a Broad Street parade for our kids.

Tonight, Taney plays Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West, another city team noted for its heavy hitters. We’re from Philly: We know how to lose — but we also know how to come back. Which Taney team will we see on the field? Tune in and see!