Monday, April 6, 2009

Opening Day... (or not)

[Editor's note: The Red Sox have announced that they are postponing today's game due to rain. It will be played Tuesday. So come back tomorrow and read this again - I'm not writing all this over.]

As a man who enjoys the pomp and circumstance that precedes today's major sporting events, I am a huge fan of Opening Day. I love starting line-ups and a good National Anthem can carry me for the first quarter of any basketball game. That's why I'm still on the hunt for a girl who understands that I need to be in my seats 20 minutes before tip off and will not ask if we can leave before the final buzzer (I don't care that the game is essentially over... sit your ass down.)

Opening Day in Boston is better than most because it is an event. Even people without tickets find their way to Fenway to soak in the atmosphere. It's a day when you can call in sick and not even make up an excuse; "I have Opening Day tickets" is enough of a reason not to go to work. The only thing better than Opening Day is an Opening Day that also features a banner unveiling, and we've had plenty of those around here this decade. Alas, today won't be one of those days and yes, it's expected to rain on and off throughout the game, but that doesn't make today any less great.

The time for talking and meaningless games featuring position players with numbers in the 80's are over. Opening Day is the day when everyone is equal, when no one is deserving of boos (yet) and hope spring eternal. I always get very fired up on Opening Day and the four or five games that come after it; only to realise that there are 155 more of these things to come, about 100 of which mean very little as the Sox spend a road trip playing Baltimore and Kansas City. But still, Opening Day isn't the time when you worry about that kind of thing. Just enjoy the game and the promise of what can come in the following season.

Any city that has had a tough winter will especially appreciate the start of baseball season because it also means that spring has finally arrived and the weather is going to get warmer. And that means the scenery around town is going to improve with it. You get spoiled if you can see that any time of the year (What can I say? I've always found girls who can pull of the baseball hat look to be extremely cute).

-Speaking of the fairer sex... why didn't anyone tell me I missed National Cleavage Day? I was going to make a cake and everything.

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