Finally. After four and a half months, the wait is over.

Since the Rangers walked off the field September 30 in Seattle, (to a 3-1 loss, naturally), we’ve been waiting for this. We’ve been waiting for another Rangers baseball game. Today, it happens.

Well, the next best thing.

Today, at 2:05 Central, players wearing Texas Rangers uniforms take the field against players wearing Kansas City Royals uniforms for the first exhibition game of the season. In all, the Rangers will have 35 exhibition games.

There’s really nothing to get excited about. The games don’t count. The play on the field doesn’t matter. And the players are mostly anonymous.

Spring training baseball is mostly a chance for players we will never hear of again to send their parents pictures of them in a Rangers uniform.

But it’s baseball. And meaningless baseball is better than no baseball.

Spring training is mostly a reminder. A reminder of doubles to start rallies and double plays to end them. A reminder of outfielders laying out to make diving catches and hitters laying down bunts to move runners over. A reminder of spring, of sunshine, of optimism.

It’s about hearing Eric Nadel’s voice again, an old friend returning from a long trip away.

It’s about seeing, even if for one brief moment, the future hope of the Rangers. The next wave that’s going to return this franchise to greatness. The promise.

Maybe there is a little to get excited about.

It’s baseball, after all.