The Two Most Exciting Words In Sport (2021 edition)

Waiting on an 8:05pm first pitch on opening day is like having to wait until noon to open your Christmas presents.

Statistics say that a good portion of you, fair readers, are not baseball fans. I’m not one of those baseball fans who insists that others should join my obsession. And make no mistake I’m a fan. In fact, I’m probably a bigger baseball geek than anyone you know. If you don’t believe me, send me the contact information for your friend who is a bigger fan. I’m always looking to expand my group of friends who share my passion.

But, despite knowing that some of y’all think baseball is a boring game, and knowing what an insane idiot I am about the game, I appreciate you staying through my baseball posts. I really do.

As I was driving my son to work yesterday, I said,

Do you know what holiday tomorrow is?

.

Ah. . .I don’t know April Fools Day?

.

Oh. . .yes, of course. Not sure why I thought it was May Day. I completely forgot about the month of April.

My son is not a baseball fan. He would not have picked “Opening Day” as the “other” holiday that April 1st ushered in.

Today, baseball returned to “normal.” Teams returned to their home stadiums, like the Mariners, or travelled to “open on the road” like the visiting San Francisco Giants. Fan returned to the stadiums. The Tigers held their home opener in Detroit. It snowed. They played anyway.

But, we really don’t have normal. We have a new normal. Fans returned, but the Mariners home stadium of T-Mobile Park holds about 30,000. They allowed 9,000 to enter the ballpark. The Washington Nationals held their home opener in Washington DC against the NY Mets. The game was postponed. Not due to rain (or snow) but a player tested positive for COVID. The entire game got postponed.

I stayed up late watching the Mariners opener. They fell behind early, but rallied for six runs in the 8th to briefly take the lead before giving it up in the 9th. And then it was off to extra innings.

The great thing about baseball is that ties aren’t really a thing. You just keep playing until someone wins. When, you are tied after 9 innings, you play another and another and so on until someone is ahead at the end of the inning.

Again, normal is new. Now, when a game goes to extra innings, teams start the inning with a player on 2nd base. That rule was implemented during last year’s COVID shortened season. It’s a whole new ball game.

Oh, and the two most exciting words in sports aren’t Opening Day, although that could be a close second. Finally, we can say,

PLAY BALL!

Stay safe

(Just before midnight the Mariners got a walk-off walk to win it 8-7 in the 10th)

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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