Opening Day

I guess you got the idea that I’m kind of into baseball…

It’s funny. I meet people all the time who discovered the game late in life. Or haven’t discovered it at all. I just can’t relate. Literally, I can’t remember a time in my life without baseball. When I was little, I listened to games on the radio, I collected baseball cards, I played sandlot baseball down the street or around the corner.

I love baseball.

So, you can understand why I’m so happy that today is MLB’s Opening Day.
Technically, there was a game last night – the official opener of the Miami Marlins’ new stadium. There were also two games last week – A’s vs. Mariners – in Japan. But today is the REAL day. It is officially “Opening Day.”

After the long, cold winter (okay, our winter wasn’t particularly long this year and it wasn’t very cold at all…it just sounds more dramatic to write it that way!), it’s always just such a welcome site to know that baseball is back.

In our house, the play by play chatter of a baseball game often serves as the background music of a summer evening at home or a hot weekend afternoon. There is often a game going on – whether it is the ESPN game of the week, a Cardinals or Reds game via cable or one of the 162 Atlanta Braves games we get here in ‘Braves Country’ in the South.

The Bravos opened the season today in the same place – Citi Field in New York -  where my entire family last saw them play back in August. The Braves squandered a few scoring opportunities, wasted a well-pitched game, and lost to Los Mets 1-0. There were myriad other games on the MLB schedule today. I was able to catch a bit of the late action after I returned home from a routine doctor’s visit.

The MLB schedule will ramp up in earnest over the weekend. Soon, every team will have celebrated its OWN version of “Opening Day.”

The things I love about this day:

• The Weather is fresh and clear, as it often is during the Spring
• Everyone’s excited about the return of baseball after the long off-season and the interminable spring training
• Everyone is enthusiastic. All 30 teams have a chance to be winners and they’re putting their best foot forward

Months from now, the season will have played out. By mid-summer, half the teams will be out of the pennant race and the electric blue skies will have morphed into July haze-gray.

But as for this day, everyone’s undefeated; all the teams are champions!

JG  

(Source: ESPN)

Originally posted 4/5/2012