There’s a real strange feel as we are about to say so long to February and hello to March.

The local high school basketball season is done, thanks to the experimental condensed schedule. Finshed. Caput. In the books.

Hockey is about to start, so that feels normal. But there’s no spring training baseball, obviously, just board (room) games.

That’s where our real March Madness will be directed if the players and owners can’t come to an agreement.

Forget the deadline, it’s purely artificial unless the two sides say the heck with it and talks break off after today. If camps can’t open in the next seven days you won’t see baseball for a while.

Forget about who is right or who is wrong; the ghost of Marvin Miller is hovering over these talks imploring the players not to give in to the owners this time. The real problem is always free agency. The luxury tax is seen as preventing many teams from signing free agents to mega contracts; it was so predictable that would be a big issue and get the players ticked off on Saturday to the point where talks nearly broke off.

Economically, the game is out of control. Too many fat cats, and too many starving ones on the minor league level. And because of it, MLB and Commissioner Rob Manfred continue to mismanage things to the point when a fine franchise such as the Lowell Spinners is told it has to go dark. Awful.

And how about the businesses and vendors in Florida and Arizona that depend on spring training for a good chunk of their annual income? Anybody thinking about them?

There’s so much wrong with professional baseball, it would take days to go through it. MLB talks will resume today after Sunday’s session ended around just after 7 p.m. A lot of times, these things are actually settled through back channels, away from the posturing at the bargaining table.

But consider this: Unless both sides realize the damage they are doing to what’s left of the game, it will take leverage from one side or another to change things. For the owners, that means missing home dates after April. They’re willing, it seems, to sacrifice the first month of the season when, especially in cold weather cities, attendance is usually at its lowest. They won’t want to see stadiums empty in July.

The players – those at the bottom of the salary ladder (which is still easy street for most of us) – will begin to get ancy around that same time after missing a few paychecks. If most of us miss just one, the lights go out and the water gets shut off.

So we don’t have sympathy, obviously, for either side. You want baseball? Rivier is headed to Myrtle Beach, S.C.next weekend to begin its season. Division III non-scholarship athletes competing for the love of the game.

Meanwhile, there’s still snow on the ground and we’ve got the NHIAA boys and girls hockey tournaments starting in a few days.

March as it should be.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.