Why Time Begins On Opening Day in Los Angeles

It’s not just an outstanding baseball book, it’s a philosophy. It’s a truth.

Today all of the hopes and possibilities of an entire year rest so bound-fully in front of us all. It doesn’t just have to be about baseball. It can be related to life as well. We’ll explain how with the help of another post that describes it well.

Opening Day is a signal that lazy, warm nights and the hot, blazing sun by day are coming. They signal that that eternal conundrum of baseball — that even the first place teams often lose four of every ten games, that the best batters barely hit their way on base cleanly a little more than three times out of ten, that this very hard game to play still, for all that, looks approachable and something anyone can do whether they’re eight, or sixty-eight, or any of the years on either side or in between — is about to begin.

Being a baseball fan is to acquaint oneself with loss, with defeat, with failure, and to still come away with hope. Redemption is always just a morning away.

That’s deep and if you’ve lived anything but a storybook life, you know it to be true. Who knows what the months will bring; but we should live them with a lot of hope that happier and more prosperous times lie ahead.

It doesn’t have to be in just in a monetary sense either.

As a Dodgers fan, is this finally the year the Dodgers win their first World Series title since 1988? This season could feel like the best summer ever if the Dodgers get back to the World Series and avenge last October. If Cody Bellinger goes after a home run title. If Yasiel Puig or Corey Seager are discussed as an MVP candidates. How about Clayton Kershaw chasing another Cy Young Award? Or what about an obscure young arm stretching a no-hitter into the 9th inning on a July night? All of these things rest as possibilities within the realm right now.

That’s what makes Opening Day and the start of a new season so great. When life gets rough – baseball is there for you – a wonderful escape.

It’s a fresh start and a chance to begin again.

No one would anticipate Barry Bonds’ record of 73 single season home runs being broken, but any player in the big leagues could do it theoretically. That chase begins now.

How many future Hall of Fame players will meet our eyes for the first time in 2018?

Let’s remember that we’ll be meeting talents like Ronald Acuna, Shohehi Ohtani, and Gleyber Torres for the first time in 2018.

Is this the year that an upstart like the Tampa Bay Rays or San Diego Padres pull of the heist of a lifetime and win a division? It certainly could happen. I know there are Rays and Padres fans out there who believe just like I do in the Dodgers. Even if just for a day.

The thing about Opening Day that makes it so special is the boundless possibilities. The optimism that could, and can, and will see anything. You will be amazed by some of the greatest talents in the greatest sport the world has to offer. Will some random player pull a Mark Whitten on us? Hitting four home runs and driving in 12 in a single night’s work? It could be this year.

Does Bryce Harper ride off into the sunset of his Nationals career with a pennant? Do the Cubs and Dodgers meet in a season-ending series once again? Does someone make a run at Orel Hershiser’s scoreless innings streak?

A lot of questions will get answered, starting now.

The wait is over. Let’s enjoy it.