by E.L. Danvers
April 1, 2021
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It’s finally here!
It’s finally here! Opening Day has finally arrived! The baseball Christmas Eve has turned to Christmas Day. The marathon season now begins. The slow march to October is underway. Baseball is back!
After the 2020 season, the season that felt like it really never was, it is starting to set in that we will have nearly daily games to engross ourselves in. Baseball will be back in the Bronx and there will be people in the stands. The faithful will pile into the B, D, or 4 trains and make their way to 161st Street. 162 games, 30 teams. Fans the league over will finally get a chance to cheer for their teams and to shower the cheating Astros (a.k.a. Trashtros) with the hopefully endless jeers that each one of them so rightfully deserves for all of baseball eternity.
Baseball is back!
As The Boss once said, “Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning second.” On some of the nights ahead, superstitions will battle for first place on that list. The mere mention of few words jinxing the unspoken, causing the whole unmentionable situation to collapse. History evaded.
Scores and news will dance along the bottom of the screen. Baseball Tonight, every night. Pre-game shows, post-game shows. Rain delays, signaled by the sound of sad saxophone in Yankeeland, can damper a night or wash away a bad outing. Injuries. Second guessing. Back-seat managing. Roster moves. Trade rumors. Records chased. Dreams shattered. The unbelievable witnessed before our very eyes.
All of it is glorious. There is no game like the game of baseball. It’s poetic and romantic. It’s immediate redemption and triumph but it’s also instant and crushing devastation. It’s beautiful.
It’s mystique and aura. It’s magic. And in the Bronx, they’re all used to appearing nightly. Like Jeter told Boone in 2003, the ghosts will show up eventually. So here’s to aura, magic, mystique, and the ghosts! Cheers to all appearing nightly. Cheers to the chase for 28. Let’s go, Yanks, because baseball is back!
