# Opening Day
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347
**Category:** The Game Room
**Created:** [March 31, 2008, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347 "2008-03-31T03:51:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/1 "2008-03-31T03:51:45Z")
The real one. Spring is upon us - the crocuses are already gone and the daffodils and lillies are up. Life begins anew. And baseball returns.
_I believe in the Church of Baseball. I’ve tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I’ve worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I heard that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn’t work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer metaphysics to theology. You see, there’s no guilt in baseball, and it’s never boring… which makes it like sex. There’s never been a ballplayer slept with me who didn’t have the best year of his career. Making love is like hitting a baseball: you just gotta relax and concentrate. Besides, I’d never sleep with a player hitting under .250… not unless he had a lot of RBIs and was a great glove man up the middle. You see, there’s a certain amount of life wisdom I give these boys. I can expand their minds. Sometimes when I’ve got a ballplayer alone, I’ll just read Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman to him, and the guys are so sweet, they always stay and listen. 'Course, a guy’ll listen to anything if he thinks it’s foreplay. I make them feel confident, and they make me feel safe, and pretty. 'Course, what I give them lasts a lifetime; what they give me lasts 142 games. Sometimes it seems like a bad trade. But bad trades are part of baseball - now who can forget Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas, for God’s sake? It’s a long season and you gotta trust. I’ve tried 'em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball._
Please add your quotes, observations, and experiences regarding baseball.
Today is the greatest day of the year.
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### Author:  [@Kerrigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kerrigan)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/2 "2008-03-31T05:00:38Z")
People ask me why I’m so into watching baseball, and seemingly so randomly. I was never much for sports up until a year or so ago before the 2007 MLB season began.
That’s about the same time I graduated nursing school and started my first full-time nursing job.
About halfway through the season, I figured out why I enjoy the obsession so much.
When I’m watching the game on TV, and especially when I’m at the ballpark, it’s just so different from the stresses of my job. When everything is going to crap on the field, there’s not a single person in Arlington who wants to know my opinion. Nobody really cares what I think. And most importantly…
_Nobody wants **me** to fix it._
In my professional world, it seems that being The Nurse, I sometimes feel like I’m trying to be everything to everyone, and my patients and family members usually expect no less. Baseball provides me with a complete escape from that life for three beautiful hours at a time. I can just watch.
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### Author:  [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/3 "2008-03-31T05:49:54Z")
_If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she will choose to save the infant’s life without even considering if there are men on base_. ~Dave Barry
_You can’t sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You’ve got to throw the ball over the goddamn plate and give the other man his chance. That’s why baseball is the greatest game of them all_. ~Earl Weaver
_It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone_. ~A. Bartlett Giamatti, “The Green Fields of the Mind,” Yale Alumni Magazine, November 1977
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/4 "2008-03-31T05:57:56Z")
_Strikeouts are boring - besides that, they’re fascist. Throw some ground balls. More democratic._ ~ **Bull Durham**
_What is both surprising and delightful is that spectators are allowed, and even expected, to join in the vocal part of the game… There is no reason why the field should not try to put the batsman off his stroke at the critical moment by neatly timed disparagements of his wife’s fidelity and his mother’s respectability._ ~ **George Bernard Shaw**
_Hating the New York Yankees is as American as apple pie, unwed mothers and cheating on your income tax._ ~ **Mike Royko, 1981**
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### Author:  [@ShermanAter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShermanAter)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/5 "2008-03-31T06:45:03Z")
_Baseball…been berry berry good…to me_—Chico Escuela
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### Author:  [@Hawkeyeop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hawkeyeop)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/6 "2008-03-31T13:43:05Z")
“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” ~Rogers Hornsby
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### Author:  [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/7 "2008-03-31T15:39:25Z")
There’s something about the first time I step into Dodger Stadium each year that is simply magical. Oh, don’t get me wrong: it’s special every single game. But the _first_ time – after being away for six months, with nothing to do but gaze at my Dodger monthly calendar, pine away at my desk looking at the overhead view of the stadium that occupies my desktop background, and hungrily devour every single news item that comes my way regarding baseball – stepping through those turnstiles after such a long drout and looking around at my home away from home is when I really get the goosebumps.
I’m sitting at my desk at work now, trying to get a couple of things done before I head to the game. It made me smile as I sat on the train and subway today in my Dodger gear, having people who know me and people who don’t stop me and say, “Oh, are you going to the game today?” And then it made me grin to see the mixed expression slowly creep across their faces as I answered enthusiastically in the affirmative: a combination of pride and jealousy knowing that one of their own – a daily commuter, a suit – has broken ranks and left behind the drudgery of the daily grind to go do something truly important with his day.
I’ve got tickets to see 20 games this year. Every single one will be fantastic. But short of the playoffs, there is nothing more special to me than being at the stadium with 56,000 of my closest friends when the Boys in Blue take the field on Opening Day.
_There is no sports event like Opening Day of baseball, the sense of beating back the forces of darkness and the National Football League._
- **George Vecsey**
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### Author:  [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/8 "2008-03-31T15:50:56Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Ray, people will come Ray. They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won’t mind if you look around, you’ll say. It’s only $20 per person. They’ll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they’ll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They’ll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they’ll watch the game and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.
- Terence Mann, _Field of Dreams_
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/9 "2008-03-31T15:52:39Z")
“The only real game — I think — in the world is baseball.”
Babe Ruth in his Farewell Address on “Babe Ruth Day” in Yankee Stadium, New York, New York (27 April 1947)
_“I would say I would not know, but would say the reason why they would want it passed is to keep baseball going as the highest paid ball sport that has gone into baseball and from the baseball angle, I am not going to speak of any other sport. I am not here to argue about other sports, I am in the baseball business. It has been run cleaner than any business that was ever put out in the one-hundred years at the present time. I am not speaking about television or I am not speaking about income that comes into the ball parks: You have to take that off. I don’t know too much about it. I say the ballplayers have a better advancement at the present time.”_
Casey Stengel before Congress, July 8, 1958 Senate Anti-Trust and Monopoly Subcommittee Hearing.
_“I love opening day, baseball is my religion.”_
Me, 1995 to my wife and other friends.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/10 "2008-03-31T16:13:03Z")
I don’t have cable and my reception for Channel 3, on which the game is being shown, is horrible.
I have to make a choice today as to whether I go to my dad’s and watch the game on his 42" HDTV or stay home and listen to the radio. With the delay of digital cable, HDTV + radio is not an option.
I think I am going to stick with the radio. Last year, I listened to probably 150 games on the radio and watched the rest on TV. I even opted for radio during some playoff games.
There’s something so wonderful about listening to Tom Hamilton that it almost feels like I’m missing out on something when I forego radio for the TV. Even if I go to watch a game live and leave the radio at home.
Hamilton is not only the voice of “my” baseball, with an absolute passion for the Indians and a true fan of the game, but his voice has been the voice of my summers for many years.
When I was a kid we’d sit out in the garage in the summer with Dad, him sitting in a lawn chair drinking a beer, us bouncing the basketball, rolling on roller skates, or scooting around on the scooter, listening to Herb Score and Tom Hamilton call the games.
I might try to catch a glimpse of the Tribe’s new “home alternate” jerseys through the “snow” of Channel 3, but I think I am stuck to the warm tones of Tom Hamilton to announce the beginning of spring.
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### Author:  [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/11 "2008-03-31T16:59:09Z")
_I’m not here to talk about the past._
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### Author:  [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/12 "2008-03-31T17:10:04Z")
[Classic Shannonisms:](http://themoonman.blogspot.com/)
> [@Mike Shannon](#):
>
> “Ole Abner has done it again.”
>
> “A hit up the middle right now would be like a nice ham sandwich and a cold, frosty one.”
>
> “Well, folks, this game began as a tiny worm and is blossoming into a large cobra.”
>
> “Like Spring makes the rain come, so does the edge of the plate grow.”
>
> “A couple of strips of bacon at breakfast and he’d a busted that ball out of here.”
>
> “Well, no one’s perfect. Only one guy was ever perfect, Jack, and they nailed him to a tree!”
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/13 "2008-03-31T19:09:40Z")
Glad I didn’t play hooky. Almost every game in a rain delay.
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### Author:  [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/14 "2008-03-31T20:23:18Z")
It’s fricking raining everywhere. Every game on TV here in Ohio is a rainy dreary mess. Doesn’t feel like opening day.
Fukudome got a double on his first regular season pitch though. Sweet!
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### Author:  [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/15 "2008-03-31T21:47:33Z")
No rain in Detroit, except on Tiger fans’ parade!
Hooray for Trey! The Second Royals Age began today!
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### Author:  [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/16 "2008-03-31T22:58:27Z")
[QUOTE=cmkeller]
No rain in Detroit, except on Tiger fans’ parade!
Hooray for Trey! The Second Royals Age began today!
[/QUOTE]
Okay, so the Royals will go 1 and 161. Big deal.
I kid. It should be a good season. (The bullpen was strong, but I’m not putting too much stock in that…yet.)
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/17 "2008-03-31T23:24:17Z")
And the Dodgers start their 50th season in LA by beating the hated Giants 5-0.
Life is good.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/18 "2008-03-31T23:56:22Z")
[QUOTE=silenus]
And the Dodgers start their 50th season in LA by beating the hated Giants 5-0.
Life is good.
[/QUOTE]
Congrats, all I got was a rainout. BTW: you should have many more chance to put a beating on the Giants this year.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2008, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/19 "2008-04-01T02:00:44Z")
\*Statistics are to baseball what a flaky crust is to Mom’s apple pie. \*
**- Harry Reasoner**
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### Author:  [@sir\_viks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sir_viks)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2008, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-day/443347/20 "2008-04-01T02:49:48Z")
_Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Fenway Park_
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