Classic Rant #474 (March 31, 2011): Play Ball

New York is slated for rain, snow, a perfectly miserable day weather-wise, maybe we'll get into the high 40s and it will just be rain.

As the drops fall, players won't be lacing up their cleats for football.

Baseball season is finally here, and while the season opens around the country, the real opening of the season will be in Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York, when the New York Yankees take on the Detroit Tigers.

Game time is approximately 1:09 p.m. for the Yankees' 109th season.

I can't wait.

The winter is wonderful if you are a kid, but you know that when baseball season opens, the warm weather is right around the corner.

And with the warm weather comes dreams of all sorts, mostly good ones.

The winter is dreary. The spring and summer revitalize you.

And when baseball ends in the fall with the World Series, you are totally spent.

And that's even true when you watch a good team like the Yankees.

It's a six-month roller coaster ride that I have been taking for most of my life. I just got published in Long Island Newsday newspaper yesterday with some thoughts about my first game.

It was 1965, I was barely eight, and my friend's father had some tickets to a day game at old Yankee Stadium. It was the tail end of the school year in June, so we played hooky from school for a day and went to the game.

The Yankees played the old Kansas City Athletics, and I think the Yankees lost 6-5 or 6-4 or something like that.

But it didn't really matter to me.

I was taken by the grandeur of the Stadium, the largeness of it all. The photo with this rant is the old Yankee Stadium, not the facsimile we have to live with today.

Back to the old Stadium ... It really took my breath away, and the whole experience made me a fan for life.

There is nothing like actually being at a baseball game in person, and my family and I will be going to two Yankees games this year--in June, of course.

But today begins it all, and I am all revved up for the season to start.

I think the Yankees will do just fine, certainly getting into the playoffs at least, and yes, I expect them to get into the World Series too.

Heck, if I was a Kansas City Royals or Pittsburgh Pirates fan, I would probably say the same thing.

Hope springs eternal, the saying goes. "Springs" is the operative word.

In the spring, everyone has a chance.

Play ball!