I am officially pumped for today. The new ESPN commercials put it so perfectly when they say that these two words have so much meaning and yet need so little explanation, “Play ball!”
Today is the day that no matter if your favorite team is the New York Yankees or the Kansas City Royals, you have hope today at least for one day. “There’s always next year” is here today. Whoever you are rooting for this year, I hope this year brings you lots of good times.
At 12 noon central I will be at my house, sitting on my couch, wearing my Derek Jeter jersey, eating a Nathan’s famous beef hotdog, and watching the New York Yankees play their first regular season game verses the Toronto Blue Jays. This will be the first of many games that I will watch in the marathon known as the MLB regular season. Today is a special day because it is the last opening day in the historic Yankee Stadium. The last opening in the house where baseball greats like Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Maris, Berra, Jackson, Dimaggio, Williams, Jeter, Munson, and Rodriguez all stood in the same batter’s box. The place where Jeffrey Maier reached over the fence and interfered giving the Yankees an extra homerun in the 1996 ALCS, where Aaron Boone hit an 11th inning, game-winning homerunin the 2003 ALCS to send the Yankees to the World Series, where Lou Gehrig gave his famous, “Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth” speech, and where Sean Reneau reached down from the Right/Centerfield bleachers in July 2007 and grabbed a chunk of outfield grass that probably sits in his underwear drawer as I type this.
I think I have decided that I have to somehow get back to New York sometime this baseball season to catch a game. It will be amazing to say that I was there the last season in the historic stadium. Anybody want to go with me? I am smelling a road trip.
Enjoy opening day!
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After writing this and getting emotionally charged up for an afternoon of Yankees baseball, the game was rained out. Unbelievable!
