Mike Zalewski is a baseball fan. Chicago White Sox, if we’re getting specific. So, it’s only natural that he likens the path to legalized sports betting Illinois to the flow of America’s pastime.

“The sessions run very similar to the first half of a baseball season, we’re in spring training, the really early part, like pitchers and catchers, right now,” he said. “People are getting into Springfield, people are getting to know their staffs and March and April are kind of spring training games, learning how to get bills out of committee.”

Zalewski (D-District 23), the Chairman of the House Committee on Finance and Revenue, already knows his way around the capital, and he’s not only working on a sports betting bill, but along with Representative Bob Rita (D-District 28), who held comprehensive hearings in the fall, he’s preparing to make legal Illinois sports betting a reality with legislation onto new Governor J.B. Pritzker’s desk by May.