For Openers

Few events in any sport spark hope like Opening Day.

Once, I wrote a book called, “Why Time Begins on Opening Day.” Baseball fans have asked me many things. But no one has ever asked, “What does that goofy book title mean?”

It’s a warm whimsical compliment to baseball that we grasp that the calendar is divided into two very unequal parts. There is the baseball season for seven months, and then there is…the rest.

Those other five months…the part of our lives without baseball every day when reality grinds into us and we don’t have the option to respond, “There’s a ballgame today, so I’m in a better mood than a rational view of things might merit.”

My wife, Wendy, not a sports fan, has the kindness to know that as each season draws to its close, I am not only losing a pleasure but a support system, too. “The season is almost over,” she’ll say, “so why don’t you watch the game tonight.” She knows it’s going to be a long wait for Opening Day.

Everybody has hobbies. Some are associated with certain times of year. But Opening Day has special emotional weight because it combines so many elements. We value the opener as a fresh 0-0 start, the sort of regularly scheduled benevolence that we encounter almost nowhere else.

But Day One also marks the return of a companion who is available to us as much or as little as needed, and who joins us wherever we prefer, from the home TV to the phone in our hand, and from the park itself to the radio wherever we are. MLB.com even has six-minute highlights of every game that barely miss a play.

Because many of us share the sport across generations, the game is akin to a family member who’s been away for months (except for a few texts about transactions, trades or signings).

Opening Day brings such buoyancy because MLB is there for us in more different ways and fills more different needs than any sport that I’m aware of. Maybe you’re happy and go to a game to paint things red, or maybe you go because you’re blue.

Many people love baseball who are older or who have a disability. It can be a lifeline. From the 10-year-old in perfect health who worships the local star, to the 80-year-old grandmother who keeps the score of every game, to the memorabilia lover or the advanced statistics nerd (me), MLB fills in more space and gives you more, in total, than any other sport. All those “hooks” link us to others who feel the same way.

The Opening Day tingle is not merely a fan feeling. I’ve covered 45 of them and, in the clubhouse, the players seem like kids about to open a giant present tied with a bow. The gift inside is opportunity; a chance to redefine themselves and their team.

A new season evokes our hopes, but our jitters, too, since we respect the game’s incredible unpredictability. I learned this the hard way. Before the ’89 season, I wrote a story, complete with slapstick cartoons, about how the Orioles, who’d lost 107 games in 1988, might be the worst team ever.

Instead, those Orioles, with Cal Ripken Jr. and two dozen journeymen, improved by 33 wins and stayed in the pennant race until the last weekend of the season. I missed my prediction on the team that I’d covered for years by 50 wins.

Ever since, I’ve enjoyed Opening Day even more because I know huge shocks are coming. Nobody ever imagines most of them. Last season was typical: 12 teams either improved or collapsed by an average of 17 wins compared to the previous season. The Royals improved by 30 wins. In ’23, 14 teams either rose or fell by an average of 17 wins. The Rangers improved by 22 wins and won the World Series.

In baseball, it’s better to be rich. But maybe not as much better as we think. The reason fans in every city construct winter wishes around next year’s hot rookies…or key free agents…or an aging star who bounces back…or that fire-sale hurler who wins 16 is because those things really happen, every year.

Just not for everybody. On Opening Day, we start to find out whose dreams will come true. No wonder we count the days.

Thomas Boswell is the 2025 winner of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Career Excellence Award