Opening Day is finally upon us. Why is that so great? For one thing, it signals the end of winter and the beginning of spring.
Now, we can finally get back to the long-honored tradition of going to the ballpark for the season opener, paying outrageous prices for a drink and a hot dog, and then “enduring” a three-and-a-half-hour game where the ball is in play for a grand total of 15 minutes. Who wouldn’t enjoy that?
Well, foreigners for one. (Yes, I’m always asked by foreigners how I can like a game that’s so slow and lacks intensity. I tell them, you'd understand if you saw the 2003 and 2004 ALCS. As it turns out, that doesn’t work.)
Yes, baseball is slow. Yet somehow it’s watched and loved by millions of fans who are used to the tortoise-like pace of our national pastime and can’t wait for a new season to start. When it does, baseball makes a spectacle of it. Unlike NBA and NHL seasons that start in the fall (and in an inside venue), baseball’s season usually begins with a day game, forcing us to all play hooky in order to see it.
And what have we seen? Everything.
Opening Day Follies
