A Most Odd Off Season

Strange wedding.

Yes. Very strange. Come along.
– The King and Queen from The Princess Bride

Well, baseball started today. . .I think. It’s been a most unusual off season. Baseball ends with the last out of the World Series. This is typically in October, but occasionally spills over into November. (Exciting times when the team plays in an open air stadium in a Northern climate.) It starts with the first pitch on Opening Day. Typically in April, but occasionally as early as late March.

That means that the off season is 5 months long. Typically about 150 days.

This year? The Washington Nationals won their first World Series on October 31, 2019 by beating the cheating Houston Astros. (Seriously, they cheated and lots of people are still upset.)

Today was opening day, July 23, 2020. It’s been 267 days. It’s been so long I don’t even remember when opening day was supposed to happen. I think it was sometime in March, but frankly it’s still too painful to go back and look.

Being a Seattle Mariners fan, I have two annual traditions. Each year I spent $120 for the ability to watch all 162 Mariners games over the internet. This year, I spent my money, but of course, opening day was postponed and they gave me back my money. (I would rather have had the games.)

The second tradition is I import the Mariners’ schedule into my calendar. So, I have 162 appointments, each with an meeting notification telling me who the Mariners are playing.

And for the last three months, about 5 days a week I get a pop up reminder that we are still not playing baseball.

You would think that I would be looking forward to Opening Day. . .Delayed.

I was. . .and I wasn’t.

My first child, a daughter, was born in 1989. My second child, also a daughter, was born four years later in 1993. Six years later, my lovely wife was pregnant with our third child. The ultrasound said it was a boy. Being a lifelong scouter, you’d think I would be excited.

I was. . .and I wasn’t.

I refused to let myself believe our third child was a boy. It’s not that I DISbelieved. I just didn’t allow myself to accept that it was really happening. That was until 2000 when my son was born.

That’s what Opening Day 2020 has been like for me. I didn’t pay for the broadcast ($45 now, since at 60 games, it’s less than 1/3 of the regular schedule.) I also have not imported the revised Mariners schedule. Their first game is tomorrow and it will happen, but I’m mostly going to wait and see.

Tomorrow’s not promised to anyone and in 2020 who can say what the next sunrise will bring?

Stay safe

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.

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