I’ll say it, Opening day is the best day of the year. It truly is, it’s America’s pastime. I know that football is America’s bread and butter these days, so baseball does not get talked about in the same way that it should, but that is a conversation for another day. Civil War hero Abner Doubleday created this beautiful game to be enjoyed in the colorful spring. through the dog days of summer, and all the way through until pumpkin spice season. Okay, maybe Doubleday wasn’t thinking about pumpkin spice, but the multi-seasonal sport all starts with one day, and it’s the best day of the year, Opening Day. Not sure that this conversation is up for much debate, because if you feel what I feel on Opening Day, you will understand why. Yankee Legend, Joe DiMaggio, once said, “You always get a special kick on Opening Day, no matter how many you go through, you look forward to it like a birthday party when you’re a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen.” That is high praise.
Baseball is a beautiful sport. Unfortunately, Soccer or Futbol was invented first and was coined ‘the beautiful game’, but if baseball were first, I promise you it would be called ‘the beautiful game’. Whether it is the dirt outlining the infield grass in contrast with the raised dirt of the pitcher’s mound, with a white slab of rubber on top. Or when you move to the perfectly contrasted lines in the outfield: light, dark, light, dark, etc.… You can see everything beautiful about the game. Different outfields have different looks. Busch Stadium does a design with the arch in center field, while Yankee Stadium does the lines, business-like, just like the franchise wants itself to be portrayed. The Stadiums are beautiful, the Red, White, and Blue logo in front of both dugouts and behind home plate, fan favorites, like Billy Crystal throwing out the first pitch. You get players lining up along the first and third baselines, singing our country’s national anthem. Parents take their kid out of school to go to the ball game or just watch from home. This isn’t a publicity stunt or marketing play; it is about tradition and beauty. Once a year, at the end of March, 15 cities gather together for Opening Day to celebrate, and do not forget… This day is so special that the other 15 franchises give their home crowd the same treatment, the same Opening Day experience that everyone else would have, even if it is 10 games into the season. THAT is how special Opening Day is. Every small town’s little league cherishes its youngsters’ opening day, its community, and its beauty.
This is the setting for what will be the most anticipated 9 innings of the year. Game 7 of the World Series is not as anticipated as Opening Day. You have months and months to think about whether or not you have a chance to win it all that season. Maybe a free agent signing or trade increased your odds. That notification from Jeff Passan to cheer you up on a cold winter’s day can increase that anticipation all that much more. Even a Pittsburgh Pirate fan talks themselves into at least a chance every year. That is not marked as a dig towards Pirates fans, it’s marked as a testament to how truly special the anticipation of Opening Day is.
There is anticipation for Opening Day starters and lineups. You know why? Because it means something. It may not mean something big picture, but it means something emotionally, in the heart, to the players, the fans, and the franchises. Heck, the Yankees usually have someone in their starting lineup on Opening Day or on the bench that doesn’t make it to the second series, but man, them being a part of that team to start the season is so special.
You hear your favorite voice again for the first time in so long, when sitting in the car listening to your favorite Radio announcer, waiting for that Opening Day long fly ball to clear the right field wall. Your friend, whom you have been waiting on for so, so long to jump back into your life. This is akin to Vin Scully or John Sterling. The idiosyncrasies that you have picked up on over the years that you do make them so endearing. You always wonder as you grow up, how long has this 80-year old announcer been 80-years old and phenomenal at calling my favorite teams’ games? Then they actually become 80-years old, and you have to enjoy every second that you share with them, because you never know when it will be their last Opening Day.
This is all before I even get to the game itself. All of this, and the game has not even started yet. The game increases in its beauty with a roll call in the Bronx or the announcement of a big free agent signing to the home crowd. The crack of the bat on the first Home Run of the season or the first “Hee-Haa” on a called third strike from the Home Plate umpire. All of these little cues are setting you up for seven months of joy.
Opening Day is special because it means something, something is coming. It means the deep, dark, cold winter’s shadow is slowly letting up. It means sticking it to Punxsutawney Phil and making sure that we do not let him or anyone else tell us we cannot go outside and play, because after all, this is a kids’ game. The same game that you rehearsed the bottom of the 9th countless times in your backyard or neighborhood park with friends you may or may not still talk to, but they are still thinking about those times that you had together on days like today, because this is Opening Day. This signifies that a kid, a teen, an adult, or an elderly person can go outside and enjoy the beautiful Vitamin D that the sun gives us. It may be cold, especially if you’re enjoying a Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers game, but I promise you will feel that sun on your face, or in your chest, or in your heart watching that game on Opening Day. I promise you that the smile for that first ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ at Wrigley will be the best and most important thing you do all month, because it is bringing the joy back out of you.
After the long winter, Opening Day signifies the start, the start of something beautiful. The next seven months are going to be filled with first pitches, 9-9-9 challenges, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, baby’s first games, pink bats, blue wrist bands, Chicken Tender Buckets, Dodger Dogs, obscure left center field menu items, laughs, and heartbreak. All of this signifies the life that we live. Through the struggle, through the highest moments, baseball is there for it all. It will all culminate in one championship at the end, and of course, that is all why we are here, but… Opening Day is special, and we have to enjoy it. We have to enjoy what it signifies, because there is nothing more important than what it does to someone. It is the start.
Remember, Football’s Week One Sunday has the beautiful crisp air signifying that fall is coming, but we do not get there without Opening Day. We do not get to Fourth of July Barbeques or the NBA Finals without Opening Day. We do not get to the thrilling Stanley Cup Finals without Opening Day. Those beautiful events in the year that we all enjoy do not happen without Opening Day. I cannot tell you to enjoy what Opening Day brings, because you already do. You may not know that some summer joy in the pool or ice cream on the boardwalk with your kids was brought to you by Opening Day, but it was. Not everyone may feel the way that I do about it, but I could tell you that if you just think about all of the things that it does for us, you will appreciate it.
Some people choose to think that the Year starts on January first, but look at all the evidence. The Year starts whenever the baseball gods come down and tell us when Opening Day is, or MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. The joys of life start on Opening Day, and I cannot wait for it.
I will tell you that the dulcet tones of late winter and early spring can be difficult, and you feel that until Opening Day, but in 2020, when the season was delayed, I felt that until July, when the season started. Of course, other important things were going on in the world, but Opening Day brought us to a place of normalcy. That place where we can look forward to the night game with my ace on the mound or interleague play. July Opening Day was still appreciated just the same. Whenever you have Opening Day, it does not matter, but what does matter is all of the highs and the lows the baseball season brings you. The highs and the lows in a baseball season represent the highs and lows in life, that we can identify with and feel heard, baseball listens… Baseball listens because it is every single night, just like the most important people in your life, they’re there every single night.
Baseball is a part of your everyday, your every moment, the ups, the downs, the stops, the starts, the anxiety, the happiness. It’s on in the delivery room when you’re having your first child, it’s on during a major world event that causes uncertainty. It happens every day at one o’clock, 4:05, and/or 7:05. Across three time zones. It’s the one constant in everyone’s life. Enjoy that, because we never know when it can truly go away. Go to Buffalo Wild Wings or a ball park on March 26th, 2026, and enjoy the sunshine that is Opening Day.
