LET’S ROOT, ROOT, ROOT THEY’LL COME BACK
Opening Day always will be about hope and optimism — even now
It’s Opening Day, but there’s no baseball.
That’s a little bit frustrating and a little bit scary. But it’s an opportunity to stop and reflect on why this particular American tradition means so much: Everybody has hope on Opening Day.
“Most definitely,” Cody Ransom said.
Ransom grew up in the Valley, learned how to grind and made a career for himself in baseball.
He played for the Giants, the Astros, the Phillies, the Padres, the Cubs, the Brewers, the Yankees — and, of course, his hometown Diamondbacks.
He knows what it’s all about.
There was optimism in the air at each of his stops. “Opening Day is a new opportunity for everything,” he said. “For teams, for individuals, for fans. Opening Day was a holiday for us, man. You always wore a suit, no matter where you were at on Opening Day. It was like a big event.”
These days, Ransom is a player development coach in the Diamondbacks organization.
His guys are itching to get back on the field, but right now it’s not possible.
The spread of COVID-19 has shut down the entire sports world. There’s no baseball, no basketball, no hockey, no racing, no Olympics.
But at least we’re alive to miss it.
More than 1,000 people have died in the U.S. from complications caused by the coronavirus.
More than 21,000 people have died around the world.
There have been more than 460,000 confirmed cases worldwide, and the numbers climb every day.
No one is certain when things will start to level off; how long we’ll be “social distancing” and “selfquarantining” and “sheltering in place” is anyone’s guess.
But we need hope that things will eventually get better.
Otherwise, what’s the point?
‘A lot of optimism on Opening Day’
Opening Day is an unofficial national holiday celebrating the one thing that makes life bearable: optimism.
“I would agree that there would be a lot of optimism on Opening Day,” longtime broadcaster Rod Allen said.
Allen grew up in Southern California, learned how to swing a bat and made a career for himself in baseball.
He persevered and persisted for over 1,100 games in 11 years in the minors. Every now and then he’d get called up to The Show.
He played 11 games with Seattle at the start of his big-league career. He played in five with Cleveland at the end. In between, he managed to appear in 15 games for the 1984 Tigers, the World Series champs.
Allen knew the game; and after all those stops, he could talk to anybody.
He became a broadcaster and was in the booth when the Diamondbacks won the 2001 World Series. He also remembers calling a game on Opening Day in 2005 when a guy you wouldn’t remember put himself in the record books.
“Dmitri Young … he hit three homers in the game that day,” Allen said. “That’s one of the Opening Days that I’ll probably never, ever forget.”
Two other players had as many home runs in the first game of the season, but no one in the roughly 150year history of the sport has hit more.
If that doesn’t show you the power of hope, I don’t know what will.
We haven’t lost Opening Day.
It’s not here when we expected it. We don’t have any idea when it’s going to come. But it’ll be here, eventually.
For now, we all can take a moment to reflect in our homes at 7:10 p.m. Thursday night — right around the time when Arizona’s new ace Madison Bumgarner would have cocked back to blaze one past Atlanta’s All-Star leadoff batter Ronald Acuna.
Both teams would have been World Series contenders — everybody’s in first place on Opening Day.
That’s why we love it.
Everybody’s in first place
We all know what’s most likely to happen in any given season. This year was no different.
Would the Diamondbacks be able to finish ahead of the Dodgers in the National League West standings? No. Of course, not.
Not unless Kershaw and Price and Betts and Bellinger and Pollock and Muncy and Jansen and Turner and Seager all decided to self-quarantine until 2021, just to be on the safe side.
But could the Diamondbacks finish ahead of the Dodgers in the NL West standings?
Absolutely! Of course, they could.
Kershaw and Price and Betts and Bellinger and Pollock and Muncy and Jansen and Turner and Seager could all decide to self-quarantine until 2021!
This is what we’re missing this week with baseball on pause to slow the spread of COVID-19.
But just because Opening Day didn’t come when we called doesn’t mean it won’t be right on time when it gets here.
Until then, we’re still in first place.
Everybody’s in first place.
And we should celebrate that.
It’s hope.
It’s optimism.
It’s the spirit of Opening Day.