Rant #3,102: Hope of Deliverance

Today is almost like a holiday, but it is more almost like a religious experience for myself and millions of others.

That is because today is the opening day of Major League Baseball, which I firmly believe is the only sport that counts in the world of professional athletics.

You can say all you want about football, but its fan base is geared to betting, and even though betting is now legal in many states, placing wagers really has nothing to do with athletics.

Again, now that betting is legal in many states, you can also place wagers on baseball games, but the whole sport has never had anything to do with betting—and when it has, like in 1919, or more recently, when Pete Rose was outed as betting on his own team, it was stamped out immediately.

Baseball has absolutely nothing to do with betting, it has to do with the athletic performance of those playing it.

So today, Thursday, March 30, is the official beginning of Major League Baseball’s 2023 season, a season that is going to see a lot of changes in how the game is played.

You have the pitch clock, which forces the pitcher to throw the ball to the plate within 30 seconds … which should have been a no-brainer for every pitcher to reach this level, but simply isn’t.

And the batter will also have to be ready in a lesser amount of time, which also should be part of their DNA, too, but often isn’t.

These time elements were instituted to speed the game up, and at least in spring training, about 20 minutes was sheared off the average game time, so the ploy might have worked … but let’s see how it impacts regular season games, where the intensity level, and stakes, are much higher.

The bases will be larger, looking more like the bases that we used when we were in day camp playing ball than major league bags. This was done to increase the action with men on base.

There are some other rule changes, including how many times a pitcher can throw to first base to keep a runner close, but baseball really was never broken, and didn’t need the fixing that has been implemented for this year.

Baseball is the only major sport not to play out with a time clock, so it is supposed to be slow.

The slowness simply adds to the intensity and excitement, but some people don’t see it that way … because they simply do not understand the sport.

Major League Baseball is a sport that plays out 162 games in 180 days, so it plays out over six months’ time, where each team plays about five games a week.

You can’t rush this, you can’t hurry this … so why even try?

Anyway, I root for the New York Yankees, and hope springs eternal with the most famous sports franchise in the world.

There is extra excitement this season.

Aaron Judge is coming off a historic 62-homer season, and while it is doubtful that he can duplicate that feat again in consecutive seasons, if anyone can do it—steroid free—it would be him.

And the Yankees have Anthony Volpe as their starting shortstop. To some, he is the second coming of Derek Jeter, but I won’t go that far, just yet. He is a 21-year-old who will inject his youth into the team, and I, personally, can’t go wrong rooting for a guy who shares the same birthdate as I do (45 years separated, of course).

The Yankees play in the best division in sports, and the American League East might just have five winning teams this season, with the rejuvenated Baltimore Orioles looking to join the Toronto Blue Jays, the Tampa Bay Rays, and the resurgent Boston Red Sox as teams the Yankees will have to contend with.

So I am looking forward to the start of the season, but let’s see how much of the first game I will actually view live.

Since my semi-retirement, I am always so busy on this day—the day I do my family’s food shopping—and between that and work and other things, I have either missed the game entirely or seen a few minutes of it here and there.

I don’t expect today to be any different, but the great thing about baseball is that there are 162 games, so if I miss one, there will probably be another one to see tomorrow (although the Yankees and the San Francisco Giants have this Friday off).

It promises to be a great season, and just maybe, my family and I will actually go to see a game, like we did last year when, as part of our vacation, we visited Baltimore and Camden Yards and had a memorable time watching the Yankees beat the Orioles in more than 100-degree heat.

But we will see what we will see, whether we actually attend a game or not.

The dawn of the season to me means that summer is right around the corner, and with summer comes barbecues, swimming, vacations, and a lot of fun.

There is nothing more fun than baseball, the game I have loved since I took in my first baseball game at the age of eight years old at the old Yankee Stadium.

And hope springs eternal now, so all I can say is—

“PLAY BALL!"