I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it's best that you hear it from someone you know.

Summer is officially over.

I know what you're thinking. With these cooler temps and Steelers pre-season football up and running (including talk about backup quarterbacks and punter), it just appears to be autumn, but it's really not.

Since I moved to Butler 12 years ago, summer, to me, officially is over once the final Eagle County Baseball Championship Series is completed.

I figure this year that would make it around 7:42 p.m. this past Saturday.

I moved to Butler in late August of 1996, so my first Eagle County playoff final wasn't until the following year.

I still have this clear memory of Mars defeating Harmony in five games, the final game a Mars triumph in Mars.

The game marks the last of the baseball season — from Little League in April, then Pony-Colt and American Legion, then Eagle County Baseball.

I guess with baseball, it is the great American pastime. After the long, cold winter, we look ahead to baseball as much as anything else.

Warmer days. Green grass. Kicking back in shorts, a T-shirt and sandals and enjoying the game with a cold beverage in hand.

As summer plays out and all the championships come and go — pretty much in the same order as mentioned above — each level enjoys its moment.

Some of those teams' seasons are extended due to local and regional and sometimes a national playoff tournament, but when the Eagle County finals roll around in early August, it's pretty much the only game in town.

Anyway, getting back to that 1997 championship, Mars was celebrating its win with the home crowd. The day was drawing to a close, the sun beginning to set in the summer sky and the air had a feel that summer was fading away.

While Mars was reveling in its win, I'm sure there was talk of repeating next year. But that would be for another day — or at least nine months later. Still, you have to get through the fall and winter and most of the spring.

When I was a student in school and college, August rolled around and you knew your vacation days were numbered.

Then, when you join the work force, vacations don't have quite the same meaning, except in our line of work, it does. When summer ends, it's time to gear up for the fall sports season here.

That includes high school football, which we've been well under way in getting ready with our annual tab (Tuesday, Aug. 26 — at a newsstand near you!).

It's hard to truly enjoy those last few weeks of summer since we're already focused on the fall.

And that's fine. I love the fall with the cooler weather. But the calender says this summer's last full day is Sept. 20. I don't buy it. We'll already be four complete weeks into the high school football season.

Winter's just three months away, then summer will really seem a far way off. Again, I hate to be the bearer of bad news ...

Sam Tallarico is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle