Why Time Begins on Opening Day

It’s not just an outstanding baseball book, it’s a philosophy. It’s a truth.

Time begins on Opening Day.

Today all of the hopes and possibilities of an entire year rest so bound-fully in front of us all. It doesn’t just have to be about baseball. It can be related to life as well. We’ll explain how with the help of another post that describes it well.

Opening Day is a signal that lazy, warm nights and the hot, blazing sun by day are coming. They signal that that eternal conundrum of baseball — that even the first place teams often lose four of every ten games, that the best batters barely hit their way on base cleanly a little more than three times out of ten, that this very hard game to play still, for all that, looks approachable and something anyone can do whether they’re eight, or sixty-eight, or any of the years on either side or in between — is about to begin.
Being a baseball fan is to acquaint oneself with loss, with defeat, with failure, and to still come away with hope.

That’s deep and if you’ve lived anything but a storybook life, you know it to be true. Who knows what the months will bring; but we should live them with a lot of hope that happier and more prosperous times lie ahead.

 

It doesn’t have to be in just in a monetary sense either.

If you’re a Reds fan who reads this blog, this could finally be the year for a winner. To me, this 2010 season could feel like the best summer ever if the Reds win the Wildcard and give us some playoff baseball to watch again. If Joey Votto goes after a batting title. If Jay Bruce finally arrives on some of the promise we know he can deliver. If one of those young arms stretches a no-hitter into the 9th inning on a July night needing just three more outs. All of those distinct possibilities are within the realm right now.
That’s what makes Opening Day and the start of a new season so great.

It’s a fresh start and a chance to begin again.

No one would anticipate Barry Bonds’ record of 73 single season home runs being broken, but any kid in the big leagues could do it theoretically. That chase begins now.

How many future Hall of Famers get introduced to us as fans right now?

Let’s remember that we’ll be meeting Jason Heyward, Stephen Strasburg, and Aroldis Chapman for the first time in 2010.

Is this the year that the Kansas City Royals or Pittsburgh Pirates pull of the heist of a lifetime and win a division? It certainly could happen. I know there’s some Royals and Pirates fans out there who believe just like I do in my team, God bless them.

The thing about Opening Day that makes it great is the same thing I say every year in this post. You could see anything. You will be amazed by some of the greatest talents in the greatest sport the world has to offer. For instance, who is the next guy to go Mark Whitten on us; hitting four home runs and driving in 12 in a single night’s work? It could be this year.

Does Bobby Cox ride off into the sunset with a pennant? Does Manny Ramirez play his final game in a Dodgers uniform in October in the World Series? A lot of questions will get answered starting now.
The wait is over. Let’s enjoy it.

Diamond Hoggers salutes you, the baseball fan on Opening Day 2010. Follow Diamond Hoggers on Twitter live from Opening Day in Cincinnati for the 6th straight year.