It is easy to find comparisons between baseball and exterior remodeling in the Northeast. First of all, the door and window replacement season and the baseball season have similar schedules. The 162 regular game baseball season is similar to the amount of best-selling days in a year and players, managers and owners who want to succeed must stay committed all year round.

In baseball, and in our seasonal business, the winter meetings for owners are over.

We may have fired and hired. We’ve given managers their marching orders. We’ve traded and negotiated contracts for the players we want. We’ve set up our marketing plans and we know our schedules. We’ve met with and negotiated the best deals with our vendors. We should be ready. The pre-season has begun.

Pitchers and catchers—potential clients—started stretching their arms about a month ago. They are still taking it easy. They’re not throwing as much as they will in a month or so, but they are throwing it over the plate some.

The hitters—salesmen—arrived in camp a couple of weeks ago. Real games are being played. Even if it is still only the “grapefruit season” in Florida, batters are facing pitchers and trying to get into a groove.

We should be scouting our competition. We should know who we plan to put out in the field. We should know our hitters strengths and where they will bat in the lineup. We should know who we can count on to get on base because they hit for average and who we should look to when we need a slugger to hit a homerun.

As in baseball we are likely to see surprises in pre-season. We may need to make changes early to save the season.

No matter what the season will bring to your team, baseball is back. It is time for players to take the field. The last notes of the National Anthem are ringing through the stadium and the umpire has announced, “Play ball!”