Opening Day 2005

Sunday starts yet another season of Major League Baseball. Although the image of the game has been tarnished with the steroid allegations, it's still unlike any sport out there. I've loved the game since I was able to walk. There were times I was angry at the game and wanted to turn away from it, but just couldn't. I think the players are spoiled and are unappreciative of the fans for the most part but the bottom line is we all keep going back and paying the ticket prices, the parking fees, and the consession prices that fund this game and pay it's players the high salaries they receive.

There's just something about the crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, and the words "PLAY BALL" that bring me back year after year. I could not picture a summer without hearing Bob Shepherd's voice over the PA at Yankee Stadium, hearing the voice of John Sterling or Michael Kay making a call at a crucial point in a game, the smell of the stadium, the look on the kids' faces when they see the players they love take the field, or even the look of an older person enjoying the game and comparing it to the "glory days." Baseball has always brought people together. It has brought families together and our country together at times of crisis. The 1968 Tigers bringing harmony to a racially divided city by winning a championship, the 2001 Yankees bringing joy and happiness in games 4 and 5 of the World Series with miracle endings shortly after the city was brought to it's knees by the events of 9/11/01, and Cal Ripken taking that lap around Camden yards in September of 1995...a lap that just may have saved baseball and brought people back after breaking the historical consecutive games played record set by Lou Gehrig.

Sunday Night, winter is officially over and we start a new season. In baseball, as in life, there will be games won and games lost, times when there are heroes and times there will be scapegoats, and each game there will be a chance to start over and get it right or do things differently. It's ironic that baseball starts in spring when there is a rebirth and ends in the fall when everything starts to die. The good thing is, there's always next season and there's always next spring after a long, cold winter.