One of my favourite times of the year is upon us. Baseball Opening Day has just come and gone, and everyone seems to be a bit, well, happier. The start of baseball coincides with the start of spring, and honestly, I think God intended it this way.
Now I don’t want to start a religious debate. I’m not saying God watches baseball either; based on the violence of the Bible, I always pegged him as a hockey or football kind of guy.
What I’m trying to say is that baseball and spring time go together perfectly. At the start of spring, everyone is hopeful and excited for the summer to come. The snow is gone, the weather’s warming up, and everything’s going to be wonderful.
Then, a few months later, rain starts to fall, the basketball and hockey seasons end, and spring loses its glamour. As with a lot of things, the build up for the warm weather months usually turns out to be a lot better than the actual result.
The same thing goes for the baseball season. Fans everywhere look forward to the baseball season like no other sporting season. And the reason for this anticipation is exactly the same as for spring.
At the beginning of the season, anything is possible. Jays and Royals fans can dream of postseason success. Every up and coming prospect is going to turn into Albert Pujols. The Nats will get over the .500 mark. Every crazy dream like this feels attainable.
Opening day offers endless possibilities, and only once the dog days of summer arrive, reality kicks in. Small market teams get brushed aside by conglomerates known as the Yankees and Red Sox. Bad teams remain bad. Hot starting journeymen fizzle out. We start realizing again, like we do every year, that the baseball season is never really as great as we expect it to be in April.
Now I don’t want you to think of me as a baseball hater; I’m actually the opposite. I love the sport more than most, and would back it up in any argument. Lord knows I’ve had to. Lots of people hate baseball, and I defend the game at any opportunity. But that’s a post for another day.
The important thing is that I’m a huge baseball fan. Do I think expectations are too high at the beginning of the season? Yes. Do I think the season is too long and can get boring in late July and August? Of course I do.
But these are things that can never be changed. They are ingrained in the game just as much as the Green Monster, Wrigley field and Vin Scully are. The high expectations and long season are part of the tradition of baseball, and when it comes down to it; tradition is what baseball is all about.
Yankee Stadium may be a bit too small to be a fair major league park, but it will never be changed. While yes, it was rebuilt very recently, it was built with the exact same dimensions, as to not lose the tradition of the historic park. It may not be perfect, but in baseball more than other sports, it doesn’t have to be.
Tradition remains supreme in the sport, and that’s why, to some, baseball remains the American pastime. Football has taken over as the most popular sport in America, but to the older generation, baseball still holds the number one spot.
The baseball season is far from perfect, and it’s definitely too long. But regardless, it’s our imperfect season. Just like spring, we can count on baseball season returning every year, with the same great unrealistic expectations, the same hopeful enthusiasm. Baseball is and always will be a model of imperfection. Just the way we like it.
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