UPDATE: On the first pitch in the first inning of the Cubs/Marlins game (which was also the first pitch of the 2018 Major League Baseball season), Cubs center-fielder Ian Happ hit a home run. This is surely a portent of a wonderful season to follow for the Cubs.
Today is the opening day of the 2018 baseball season for the Chicago Cubs. They will be playing the Miami Marlins in Miami.
Opening Day is a time when all things are possible for the fans of a baseball team. Regardless of how well or poorly their team played in 2017, 2018 is a clean slate. Nobody is ahead and nobody is behind. Anything could happen. Miracles await.
From the movie, Fever Pitch:
Reporter: Where do the Sox rank in terms of importance in your life?
Ben: I’d say Red Sox, sex and breathing. I have season tickets to Fenway Park. I haven’t missed a game in years. I love the Red Sox. They’re gonna win. All the way this year, baby!
Families plan their vacations around Opening Day. In baseball hotbeds like Chicago and Boston, a lot of people call in sick on the day of the home opener for the Cubs and the Red Sox.
In Cincinnati, the Reds baseball team has a parade. It attracts about 100,000 spectators each year. They’ve been having a parade on Opening Day for about 100 years.
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From Fox19 in Cincinnati a few years ago:
Findlay Market’s annual Opening Day parade was held on Monday.
To Cincinnatians, the parade is about more than just baseball. The parade is steeped in tradition that goes back nearly 100 years and is somewhat of a holiday in Cincinnati.
“This is Cincinnati’s unofficial holiday,” said parade chairman Neil Luken. “I mean it’s kind of, you can say, Thanksgiving or Christmas. You just say Opening Day and people concede that with a holiday.”
There is electricity in the air.
“Everybody seems real excited. Everybody’s kind of pumped up,” explains Luken. “Everybody thinks the Reds are going to do real well this year.”
Monday brought an organized chaos to Findlay Market as 189 marching bands, floats and other entrants made their final preparations for the 94th Annual Opening Day Parade.
In St. Louis, on opening day, the Cardinals have Clydesdales:
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If you guessed there would be American flags on Opening Day, you would be correct.
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LOS ANGELES (April 14, 2009) Sailors and Marines unfurl a football field-sized American flag at Dodger Stadium during the pre-game activities before a Major League Baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class David McKee/Released)
You were probably thinking Opening Day has everything but flyovers, but you would be mistaken.
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PG, Bit of a Cubs fan are you?
FWIW, in La Liga, Barça is 23-6-0, undefeated this year, and tops the board with 75 points — 11 points better than Atlético. ¡Viva la diferencia!
(Not to worry. I will get into baseball in May, after football season ends.)
heathen.
“There is but one true sport and its name is baseball.”
(sniff)
(mutter mumble, grumble gripe)
A good omen for the season, or the dreaded sign that the Cubs are peaking early. [The other frequent Cub-fan fear].
Go Rice Owls!
Opening day is great but it’s not a good place to look for omens, PG.
Otherwise, well, remember Tuffy Rhodes?
Bear that in mind as I point out that Ian Happ is a good player but for tbe Cubs, far from indispensable. Job Lester, however, is key…
…and he didn’t make it out of the fourth inning…
…against the Miami Marlins…
…projected to be the worst team in MLB by far.
(Mind you, I think KC and the tiggers will give them a run for that first pick in the 2019 draft.)
Cubs won handily as the bullpen picked up the slack but that had better not be a sign of things to come. 😀
Gotta love the game.
’cause you never know.
For all the talk of super teams, they still have to play the games.
You’re correct, Felix. Mrs. PG said he didn’t do well at all (I didn’t start watching until the fifth inning.)
Tsk. Your priorities need work. Blogging instead of watching the cubbies? 😉
Of course, with the nuke that dropped on ebookland today you might be excused…
I’ll repent.
“It’s Opening Day! Better luck next year, Mets!” — Stephen Colbert
Lol, Michael.