Gameday Thread: Why Time Begins on Opening Day

Why Time Begins on Opening Day is the title of a 1984 essay collection by (I think now retired) Washington Post baseball writer Thomas Boswell. I’m not sure how well all of it holds up a few decades later, but I highly recommend his essays if you like longform baseball writing. He also gets my award for “choosing really great titles” — another essay collection is How Life Imitates the World Series.

There is something about Opening Day that makes me get those soft focus, gauzy, wistful feelings about baseball. The renewal of spring. The one day when every player is on equal footing in the record books. The Rays players out in the rotunda greeting fans (although not sure if they do that now what with remaining COVID protocols).

That lasts until first pitch, of course, and then we are thrown in the grind of 162 games of highs and lows.

If baseball is back, so is our communal baseball watching experience. Welcome back to the Game Day thread!