Spring game is here. If it at all works, load up the kids Saturday and go. It's one of my favorite events.

Last year, one of the beat writers wrote a rather jaded column to the effect that "the game" was overrated and it wasn't that big a deal. Perhaps it isn't, if you get to see every home game for free from the comfort of the press box. But for those who aren't alumni, or don't have a ticket connection, or the really big $$$$ to take the whole family come fall, Saturday is a real bargain. It is still the 'Shoe, with all its grandeur, pageantry, colors and sounds. For a 7-year-old kid who has never been there, or who only gets to this event, it's the chance for a little while to wear the Scarlet and Gray and Be a Buckeye. Walk around as I do, talk to them; watch the sparkle in their eyes and the smiles on their faces. Then "tell me it doesn't matter?"

Sure, the football is a little rag tag and disjointed. Sure, the band that will be there is not the regular marching band. (Rumor has it that it is tradition that some of the regular band members show up to mock them that their rows aren't straight...) Who cares on this day? For the struggling young family with little kids, it's still Script Ohio. It's still Buckeye Battle Cry. It's the 'Shoe. It's family. It's what it's all about.

Get there early. You'll get a good seat and support the Lacrosse Team. Fifty years from now your kids will be telling about the time they were in the stadium to set the attendance record. Go Bucks!