Play ball!
The big day has finally arrived. It was delayed by a week due to some labor issues, but it is now here. The Major League Baseball season opens today. It should be close to business as usual for baseball this year, after two years of covid related issues.
As a long-time baseball fan, Opening Day has a special meaning. No matter what team you root for, they still have a chance. You can be optimistic about the new season. If your favorite team was good the previous year, you expect that to continue into the new season. If your team wasn’t very good, you can hope for a new beginning. Hope springs eternal. Every team starts with a clean slate.
I have been a baseball fan for over 50 years. My first memory of liking baseball goes back to the fall of 1969. I was 6 years old, and I remember the Mets being in the World Series. I grew up within walking distance of Shea Stadium in New York. Of course they won the Series that year, beating the Orioles four games to one. The next year I went to see them play the second game of the season. I pretty quickly became a diehard Mets fan, a fact that still holds true to this day.
As a kid it was easy to follow the home team. In New York there were two — the Mets and the Yankees. However, most “real” fans rooted for one or the other. Geography played a role in deciding whether you were a Mets or Yankees fan. What part of New York you lived in helped determine your allegiance. Age, too, played a role. Since the Yankees had been around since the beginning of the 20th century and the Mets had only been around since 1962, older fans were more likely to be Yankee fans.
I remember watching the games on TV. Back then almost every game was on free broadcast TV. We would also listen to them on the radio if we weren’t in the house. You felt like you actually knew the announcers. The Mets had Ralph Kiner, Lindsay Nelson and Bob Murphy. Other teams had legendary announcers like Mel Allen and Harry Carey.
We would go to several games a year.
Usually, the family would go to several games together. When we were teenagers we would get a group of us to go, frequently to the then common doubleheader. Two games for the price of one. The games were reasonably affordable. Our parents would give us a few dollars to supplement the money we had from our allowance and paper routes.
Over 40 years later I can still remember some of the games we went to, usually because of something that happened on, or off, the field. I remember one game when we booed the opposing team lineup when it was announced over the PA system. The lady sitting next to us rolled up her program and hit my stepbrother on the head with it, telling him, “don’t boo.”
Things have changed over the years. It has become easier to be a fan of a team that isn’t the home team. More, and now almost all, games are on cable TV, rather than broadcast. This means you can access your favorite team’s games wherever you live, if you have the right cable channel. Of course, this means they games aren’t free anymore. Now you can even buy services that allow you to watch every MLB game from wherever you are as long as you have an internet connected device. Yes, I have this package.
Going to the games has changed too. It has become very expensive. Ticket prices are higher. Plus, parking, refreshments, and souvenirs are much higher than they used to be. Gone are the days when taking the family to a ballgame was a modestly priced form of entertainment.
Luckily here in Rome we do have an alternative, the Rome Braves. Minor league baseball games are fun, and you can see the stars before they are stars. It is also still affordable for the family to go to a game.
Enjoy the new baseball season. Root for your favorite team. It’s time to play ball!