Eager to join the celebration, rabid fans emerged from their winter nests like aroused hornets, and became part of a spirited resurrection by pilgrims cramming into ballparks to suck up the joyous rites of new beginnings. Opening games were pushed forward this season, in order to complete the World Series in September.
A New Baseball Season Is Like a New Beginning
The Boys of Summer on hometown baseball teams across the land are out to redeem their past misfortunes or extend their glories of yesteryear. And their fans in the stands are starting a new season with them; for, they too are searching for renewal or fulfillment, in a thousand different personal ways.
For any benighted soul who doubts how deep in the national psyche of America baseball dwells, consider the pathos in the final stanza of the baseball ballad, entitled Casey at the Bat. It was written by Ernest L. Thayer and published in the San Francisco Examiner in 1876.
. . . Somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville - mighty Casey has struck out.
George Carlin's Classic Monologue Compares Baseball with Football
The late comic George Carlin’s invented a classic monologue comparing baseball and football. He praised the former sport as a game in which players can go "home" and take "walks"; they play on a "diamond," in a "park"; and they are "up" and "safe." In short, he makes baseball sound like a cakewalk and football a Genghis Kahn boot camp. Perhaps George Carlin never saw Ty Cobb slide into second base, spikes high and menacing.
From a player’s viewpoint, Hall of Fame pitcher Early Wynn said this of opening day, after the winter hibernation:
"An opener is not like any other game. There’s that little extra excitement, a faster beating of the heart. You have that anxiety to get off to a good start, for yourself and for the team. You know that when you win the first one, you can’t lose ‘em all."
Opening Day Performances Reveal Individual Skills Rather Than How Teams Will Finish
Although statistically speaking, opening day performances have not been a factor in a team’s season finish, individual player performances have been forerunners of great career accomplishments.
Greg Maddux of the Atlanta Braves set the style of his performance on opening days, winning six out of seven starts. Jimmy Key, pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles, holds the record for opening day victories with seven, without a loss.
According to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the ten greatest opening day feats were:
- In the 1947 opener 28-year old Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play major league baseball in the 20th century, starting at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers against the Boston Braves
- Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians pitched the first and only opening day no-hitter in major league history, shutting out the Chicago White Sox 1-0 in 1940
- Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit a three-run homer in 1974 against the Cincinnati Reds on the opening day, his 714th career home run which tied him with Babe Ruth for the most in major league history
- Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox started the season by shutting down the New York Yankees 10-3 in 1917, pitching a three-hitter and going on to win 24 games as he led the American League with 35 complete games that season
- Frank Robinson of the Cleveland Indians made his debut as the first African American manager in the major leagues in the 1975 game, guiding the Indians to a 5-3 win over the New York Yankees and hitting the 575th home run of his career
- William Howard Taft became the first US President to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on opening day in 1910, tossing the ball to future Hall of Famer and pitcher Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators
- Pitcher Tom Seaver rejoined the New York Mets in 1983 and matched a record by starting his 14th opening day game and tying Walter Johnson’s record, as he defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 2-0.
- Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants hit a home run in the 1971 opener, contributing to a 5-0 win over the San Diego Padres and beginning his streak of four home runs in each of the Giants first four games, thus setting a major league record
- Catcher Roger Bresnahan of the San Francisco Giants strapped on shin guards used in cricket, in the 1907 opener, becoming the first catcher to use shin guards in the major leagues
- In 1959 pitcher Don Drysdale of the Los Angeles Dodgers hit his second opening-day homer, becoming the only major league pitcher to hit more than one on opening day; but, in spite of his heroics, the Dodgers lost to the Chicago Cubs 6-1
In Spite of Immigrants on the Field Baseball Remains the American Game
As the season gets underway this year, players who migrated to ballparks from all over the world will take the field; but the game is basically still as American as carbonated drinks and fast foods. It’s boisterous and impassioned, a chess game on spikes, always played by the rules but amidst passionate, booing dissenters. For the Boys of Summer and their fans, it’s time to celebrate baseball’s symbolic Easter at ball parks across America.
Howard Bryan Bonham - Howard Bryan Bonham is a former daily newspaper editor and award-winning financial writer.
