Boundless Optimism

I haven't posted in a while and so I thought I better write something to appease my rabid fanbase (by which I mean the 3 people who actually check this blog out, mostly just to humour me).

I am also a little hesitant to throw up another baseball post because I want to keep things as varied as possible. But today is Opening Day and so I must.

For the uninitiated, I am referring to the first day of the new baseball season. More specifically, I am referring to the first home game of your favourite team.

I love Opening Day. Until I moved to Edmonton, I had seen something like 5 or 6 straight Opening Day games in person. It was a tradition for a group of us. The only classes of undergrad that I missed (I was really adamant about going to every class so that I would get my moneys worth) were for Opening Day.

In Toronto, Opening Day is the only game of the year that will reliably be sold out (at least until they reliably become a playoff team), and while I can do without some of the morons who only show up for that game - really people, do you have to throw stuff on the field or run on the field - the atmosphere can be electric.

I still remember a particularly good Opening Day in 2005. The opponent was the hated (well I hate them) Red Sox. I am pretty sure this is the game when Rogers made the ill-advised decision to give out fridge-magnet schedules that would be thrown onto the field in large quantities. But regardless of the stupidity of the others in the crowd, baseball prevailed.

In the bottom of the ninth, with the Jays down 6-3, good ole Corey Koskie singled to start the rally. As the Jays battled back, the crowd became electric. Of the group that day was a friend of mine who only had a cursory understanding of baseball, and I remember her mentioning that even though she didn't quite know what was going on, she was trembling from excitement. Even though the Jays feel achingly short with two men on and one run short, I remember thinking "This is what Opening Day is about." For those in the know, I believe it was after this game that I ordered that glorious Molson Ex.

Anyways, my expectations for the Jays are pretty low for this season. But today is Opening Day, and so I can't help but think about the things that may break the right way this year. Particularly with Roy Halladay, maybe my favourite athlete (nay, human being) on the planet today, pitching today, I can't help but be optimistic. What was that Morgan Freeman said about hope?