Best day ever

IT’S MUTHERFUCKING OPENING DAY!!! If you can’t tell, I’m a little bit excited about the start of the baseball season. Yes, technically, my team opened the season last week against the Red Sox in Japan, but that doesn’t count because I don’t like Asians. This is the real opening day. Already the Giants are getting killed and the Yankees were rained out, so things are going well. I myself paid $40 for an upper-deck ticket to go see (alone, mind you) Roy Oswalt and Jake Peavy face off to start the season. I bought my scorebook Saturday. I am excited.

I like sports. A lot. I’ll watch most of them, and March Madness, though overall pretty predictable, has had its moments this year (thanks to West Kentucky, Davidson, and Duke (fuck you, Duke)). But I didn’t even write about the NCAA tournament, because I’ve been so excited for baseball to start. Baseball, regardless of any loss in popularity or steroid scandals or what have you, is truly our nation’s game. It’s steeped in tradition and lore, and it’s impossible not to speak of Babe Ruth or Ted Williams or Sandy Koufax without a certain reverence in your voice. Baseball is our history, and these players are our national heroes.

Baseball, for all the problems inherent to today’s game (beginning with, but not limited to, the designated hitter, interleague play, Bud Selig, no salary caps, the Players’ Union, the owners, and prices), is that which can bind a nation through nostalgia and good, clean fun. When taken at its most elementary level, it is still a game. It’s meant to be enjoyed, no strings attached. And as the season starts up again, and we make our predictions and talk serious shop about who’s got a shot at what, we’re reconnected with the times our dads took us to see our favorite player and the times that guy hit that home run when we were six and it was awesome. And that’s just not something you get out of football.

So get amped. Get pumped. Cheer loud. It’ll be gone way too soon.