Today, All Is Right In The World

For a diehard baseball fan like myself, there's no day on the sports calendar that can top Major League Baseball's Opening Day.  Every franchise is undefeated, and a win on Opening Day to go to 1-0 (which my Braves got this afternoon at Washington) can put a baseball fan in a great mood heading into April.  The sport's first day gives us some epic pitching matchups in iconic settings - today, I caught parts of Verlander vs. Sabathia in New York and Lincecum vs. Kershaw in Los Angeles, for example.  We also get nationally televised weekday afternoon baseball, which is a rare treat.  As the ESPN promo below (which I think is fantastic) accurately suggests, baseball's first day (or, more accurately, first few days) is special.

All of that being said, MLB's Opening Day isn't perfect.  While the start of baseball should signify the beginning of Spring, MLB insists on having cold weather teams open at home during the sport's first week.  As a result, instead of watching every team play in short sleeves, taking advantage of wonderful weather (like in today's entertaining Giants vs. Dodgers game in L.A.), we had to see the Tigers and Yankees battle freezing-cold temperatures in the Bronx.  The result is not only sloppy baseball, but visibly empty seats.  While watching the Yankees game this afternoon, I noticed that the majority of the high-priced seats behind home plate were empty.  Between the bad weather and the early start, tons of seats at the Stadium were unoccupied, which takes some of the air out of the otherwise high-flying Opening Day balloon.

Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed the first day of 2011 regular season baseball.  I'm also making my triumphant return to fantasy baseball this year (after a nearly decade-long absence), which I'm very excited about.  I had forgotten how fun it is to have something to watch and root for (or against) in virtually every MLB game; while the season is long and individual games can seem meaningless, fantasy baseball is a great way to generate a vested interest in even the most boring matchups.  Thanks to Jered Weaver, I find myself actively following this afternoon's Angels at Royals contest, and had fun doing it.

Soon enough, as the calendar turns into April, the novelty of the 2011 season will wear off and we'll officially begin the wonderfully-long six month grind that is the Major League Baseball regular season.  This week, though, everything is new and exciting.  Each of the first few games means some starting pitcher's first appearance of the year, or a middle reliever's first trot out of the bullpen, or a bench player's first pinch hit opportunity.  The optimism surrounding those "firsts" is what makes Opening Day so special.  Enjoy it while you can, and happy Opening Day.