Just as Major League Baseball is moving to shake off its steroid cloud under the warmth of spring-training sun, one of its biggest former stars continues to cast a shadow over the sport.
He felt cold and liked it, knowing that at home the room would be baking, the two-bar heater running day and night on pilfered electricity, the family luxuriating in excess warmth, even though the spring weather had come.
Mixing the slow-burning grace of The National with the open-hearted warmth of Adem, "The First Days of Spring" spends nearly seven minutes seething and building and exploding.