Happy Day

Uh, Happy New Year!

No, that's not right. Merry Christmas?

Happy Independence Day! Hmm; not that either.

Arbor Day! Yes, Arbor Day. Have a great Arbor Day. Go plant a tree.

Oh. Not Arbor Day. Thanksgiving? Don't eat too much Turkey!

Opening Day for baseball? No; off by about a week.

Not that? Then, then storm the Bastille! Remember the Maine and the Alamo! Fly the old Stars and Stripes for Flag Day! Remember your grandparents this Grandparents Day. Or Mom, yeah, Mom on Mother's Day! Treat her right!

Still not it? But I just know something's in the air today. Yet what?

Baseball is Back!

Man, it's good to watch baseball again. Even though my Detroit Tigers lost 5-4 in the opener last night, it's still a great feeling. I'm not even worried that they were 0 for 15 with runners in scoring position. The Detroits made it close. Yes, they might have won with as few as two hits with runners anxious to cross home plate. They did have two runners on with one out in the top of the Ninth who they couldn't move against a closer clearly struggling. But no need to panic. It's early.

How about that Spencer Torkelson? A home run in his only official at bat, but four walks in four other plate appearances. That makes his batting average 1.000 on the season, and his on base percentage 1.000 as well. That's a pace to hit one thousand on the year. I'm guessing that won't happen, though.

I think I'll just bask in the glow of the National Pastime this morning. Baseball for seven months; life is good. I won't worry about a thing.

It would be easier not to worry without going zero for fifteen with runners in scoring position. But I'm not panicking. No, I'm not.

Okay, maybe just a little. Yet it's early. It's early. Lot of baseball to be played yet. I'm staying calm.

Oh, but geez, we win with just a couple hits in those situations...

Opening Day 2024

This is it: the real, one and only, true Opening Day in all of sports. Major League Baseball begins today. Well, other than the two games played in Korea last week. But let's not quibble.

Anaheim at Baltimore start it off at 3:05. My own Detroit Tigers face the Chicago White Sox in Chi town at 4:10. It's on.

Predictions? I won't make any even though it's expected. Everyone's a World Series contender on Opening Day and I won't spoil it. Let's simply enjoy the beginning of 162 games of the best sport there is, bar none. Baseball. The national pastime. 

Let Summer roll.

Two And Four

Well, they looked awful in Tampa, losing three games in simply horrible fashion. Then they took the first two from the Astros in Houston before tanking pretty bad in the third match. So we find the Detroit Tigers with two wins and four losses six games into the 2023 Season.

That ain't bad. Truth be told, I expected them to be 1-5 at best to start the year. The Tigers aren't likely to be good this time around, and starting things off with six road games against perhaps the two best teams in the American League did not bode well.

But hope springs eternal, and they face the Red Sox in the home opener today. I may just take the afternoon off and watch. If the boss will let me.

Opening Day 2021

Yesterday the baseball season began, and thankfully it was no cruel April Fools Day joke. 13 of the 15 scheduled games were played. Hopefully we can get an entire season in, with increasing attendance.

I got in from a road trip in time to catch most of the Tigers first game, followed by the end of the Toronto-New York Yankees match. In the best tradition of organized sports I will offer my first objection to new rules: I do not like, I do not like at all, starting extra innings with a runner already on second base. It takes away from the last at bat advantage, among other things. But more unwanted analysis on that later. This is a time to be happy and excited that baseball is back.

On that front, to use the stilted but clever and funny verbiage of cartoonist Nathan Pyle, my regional orbcatchers are 1-0 and on a pace to finish 162-0. It's a good feeling. An Opening Day kind of feeling. 

Everyone is in contention, on Opening Day, to win the World Series. And as my beloved Detroit Tigers won and have today off before playing game two of the 2021 Season tomorrow, I get to bask in that glow. Too soon the inevitable alternate reality, the alternate reality which comes, sadly, to 29 of the 30 MLB teams each year, sets in.

Let it wait until Saturday. Or, God willing, Sunday. Or maybe, just maybe, until the final out of the 2021 World Series is made. That is the ultimate hope of Opening Day.

Opening Day 2018

This afternoon at about 1:10 Eastern time at Comerica Park in Detroit (I almost said Tiger Stadium there in wishful thinking), Jordan Zimmerman will throw out the first real pitch of the 2018 MLB Season. The true American national pastime will be underway.

Opening Day in baseball eclipses opening day in any other sport. Sure, the fans of those other games games revel in the beginning of their seasons, and that's okay. To each their own. But their games don't hold a candle to our game.

The mystique of baseball is greater than the, well, I won't call what other sports have mystique. They have sheer brutality as in American football, and that is hardly a plus. Others may have speed, but that again is not the same as acumen, and acumen, true athletic ability, is what baseball has in abundance. The other big games simply don't have that.

Don't bother with complaints about baseball taking too long. Basketball is interminable particularly in its closing moments, and football has gotten that way too. All major sports other than soccer take 3-4 hours to play. Baseball is no slower, nor faster, than they are. Hell, I quit watching basketball years ago simply because the last 30 seconds take a half hour to play.

Baseball lets us enjoy the game. It is leisurely, even quaint perhaps, yet excitement still builds as we wait for the pitch or watch the action as men speed around the bases and fielders perform relays. And at least for today, my beloved Detroit Tigers are in first place.

Opening Day 2017

Today is Opening Day. I don't think I have to say any more (though of course I will) as any red blooded American, when hearing the term Opening Day, knows that it means baseball.

Oh sure, get all technical if you like and point out that it was actually yesterday for a handful of teams. But baseball, being provincial (and that is a strength) takes little regard of that. Opening Day is when your team begins play, not someone else's.

So at 4:10 this afternoon, Monday, April 3, 2017, the Detroit Tigers will send Ian Kinsler to bat, and baseball will begin. We have a lineup which will do some damage. We have decent defense and good starting pitching. We will compete.

Yes, we. Because the local baseball team is our team. A good, solid summer awaits.

Baseball is Back for 2012

What could be more American than baseball? And today is Opening Day, that feast of baseball excess which leads us into spring and summer days of sun and fun.

The Detroit Tigers take on the Boston Red Sox at Comerica Park this afternoon at 1:05, officially inaugurating the 2012 season locally. The sun is expected to be shining and, although it will be on the chilly side, the hearts of Detroiters will be warmed by the glow of the National Pastime.

Let the fans of the other major sports, especially the footballers, say what they will; baseball is the game of Americans. It was played as recreation during lulls in the Civil War. It was played in earlier forms during the colonial and revolutionary periods of our history. It is provincial, and that is one of its key strengths. So more people may watch the Super Bowl; that's merely because it is one game, and many if not most watchers are more concerned with the party than the athletic event anyway. But baseball fans watch the World Series more intently when their team is involved. No fair weather fans there. No false fans untrue to their locale as with so many Super Bowl and even BCS 'fans'.

What's more, it's the game which best displays the natural conservatism of Americans. Everyone plays as a team but also has to go out there as an individual; you field, where your prowess depends upon your skill but also your teammates positioning and anticipation. You bat or pitch, which gives you the chance to produce on your own. It's Americana at its best.

Welcome, baseball! Welcome, harbinger of the bright days of summer! Welcome back, National Pastime! We have the summer to ourselves, unspoiled by those other games, those pretenders to our hearts. Baseball is America, baseball is back, and go Detroit Tigers!