Opening Day: Present, Past, People, and Practices
Words by Matthew Romano
Illustrations by Katie Herchenroeder
For some,this past Thursday, March 28, was just a day like any other - a day of classes,a day at the office, a typical Thursday with typical Thursday to-dos. However, forothers, March 28 was the biggest day of the year, the biggest Thursday - behindmaybe Thanksgiving. Some, like New York Mets fan and overall fan of baseball SadaabRahman are, in fact, bitter that the latter is a national holiday and not theformer. So, what is this day that had these effects on so many Americans, youask?
Well, March28, 2019, earlier this year than in any year past, was Baseball’sofficial “Opening Day.” The first day of the 162-game season featuring all 30teams lacing up their cleats, donning their jerseys - new and old - and facingoff against each other searching for that heralded first win.
Viewersacross the United States tuned in as their favorite teams and favorite playerstook to the mound or stepped into the batter’s box. Here in New York, manyrallied for the Yankees in their 7-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles, powered byhome runs. These out-of-the-park moves were not from their typical householdnames like Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton but rather Luke Voit and GregBird.
Meanwhile,many others cheered on the New York Mets in a nail-biter win over theWashington Nationals. A game in which last year’s Cy Young winner, JacobDeGrom, outdueled the award’s runner up, Max Scherzer. Further, Met newbieRobinson Cano, although no stranger to New York, announced his return in thefiercest way a baseball player could – a home run to left center field in justthe third pitch of his first at bat.
I, likemany others, had been eagerly anticipating opening day for the past few months,a passion which grew more intense on March. I was anticipatory for a reasonthat I will get to shortly and try to avoid biasedly rambling on about, which,knowing myself, won’t be easy.
In short,baseball’s offseason was a tiring one to say the least – something many playersprobably concur with. At least with the hope of opening day we have gotten areprieve from the mundaneness of these past few months. This feeling can’t besaid for Free Agents like Craig Kimbrel and Dallas Keuchel, still without ateam to call home, as teams avoid them as if they were forbidden fruit. It tookuntil February 19 for one of the big fish to be caught – that one being MannyMachado who, on that Tuesday afternoon 3 months in the making, took the $300million bait from the San Diego Padres.
On Friday,March 1, the off-season’s biggest prize with the biggest price tag, BryceHarper, said one word, signed his name on one contract of $330 million dollarsthat would decide on his home for the next 13+ years, change the tides ofbaseball, shift the power across the National League, and cap off what haslikely been the most exciting offseason in Philadelphia Phillies history. There,I said it, did I ramble?
Looking back however, opening day felt different this year. For many, including myself, classes started before 11 AM and the school day didn’t end until 6, 7, even 8 pm. In between classes, on the way to class, or the first 3 minutes waiting for professors to set up were best used quickly checking my phone for the in-game highlights, the scoreboard across the U.S., and the debut performances for baseball’s favorite young prospects.
Maybe Rahman was right, maybe opening day should be a national holiday – if for no other reason than baseball fans across the world getting the chance to tune in to the biggest day of a 7-month Baseball season, rather than take notes, study for midterms, push papers out, or stress about how late you’ll be to do these things thanks to the MTA.
EricBilach and Rahman – both CCNY students - faced a similar conundrum on anopening day that in most respects, except for on the small 5-inch phone screenand its periodic highlights, seemed like any other Thursday, unfortunately.
Rahmanreminisces on a time when opening day felt different, encapsulated and incitedthe excitement of kicking off America’s favorite pastime for its 150thyear of professional play. Rahman says of his opening day traditions, “Wedefinitely watched every game televised on ESPNstraight through and it was always a blast.” One thing in particular he enjoyedwatching for as a fan of baseball is “[seeing] the players equally as excited to get back in it as they lookforward to their own campaigns like the first day of school.”
Bilach recounts catching onto the baseball trend naturally as he watched his fathers impassioned reactionsto the game and began to learn a bit about how it is played. He would go on toplay Little League ball and then become an avid consumer both of its presentand its past. This opening day, having shared a schedule for most of the day,Bilach similarly relied on highlights and notifications to update on the courseof the day’s events and festivities.
On the contrary, however, MahirSyed, a diehard Yankee fan who happened upon baseball in an effort to fit-in butfor whom the sport has become an intrinsic part of every year of his lifesince, celebrated this year’s opening day in way he never had before. He spentMarch 28 not at classes but at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, celebrating as theydid away with their first victims – the O’s. He says of the experience, “It wasgreat, amazing atmosphere in the stadium, just something I’ve neverexperienced, but at the end just felt like baseball, which I love more thananything.”
Whether it be through yourphone, with your own eyes, or on the TV screen watching prerecorded games orhighlights on MLB network, most all baseball fans find some way to tune in towatch a sport that, despite its longstanding and unrelenting history that’smade it the national pastime, undergoes intriguing changes, captivating trends,and attempts at re-branding that are controversial. There is no doubt thatbaseball looks, feels, and is very different than it was decades ago.
This was the topic of conversationthat Bilach found himself in by being a consumer of not only baseball in itspresent but its past as well. He notes from the research that he’s done thatcertain aspects of baseball, like the amount of innings a starter goes and theamount of long balls hit, are not the same as it was throughout much of theprevious century. A little research on www.MLB.com proves these points, andquite dramatically. For example, in 1948, starting pitchers went around 6.5innings deep on average and .63 home runs were hit per game. Today, the inningspitched per game started is down to 5.6 and Home Runs per game is up to 1.16.
However, changes are also visible across baseball in itsvery recent past. Over the past year, even the past offseason alone, baseballhas experienced changes that have the potential to shape how the game is played/seen50 years from now.
Rahman, who for the past few seasons has dived in toresearching some of these unique baseball decisions and serendipitous trends,talked about how they relate to baseball as a whole, as well as to individualplayers – specifically the younger guys who have made, are making, or areexpected to make a huge impact on the games atmosphere.
One such change is the new singular July trade deadline onwhich Rahman says, “I'm eager to see how [it] works now that organizationswon't have the option of playing it out till August or September to determineif they want to go for it.” This change adds an incentive to teams on the cuspof competitive October baseball to make the push at a time in the season wheresuch a push will significantly swing the scales of power in the league.
Some of these teams are stocked with impressive andencouraging young talent such as the New York Mets, from whom Rahman givesspecial shout out to first baseman Peter Alonso, and the San Diego Padres,which Rahman professes as having “arguably the best collection of prospects inthe show with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Chris Paddack.” These teams now have aclearly defined and delineated mid-season chance to push for a pennant race bywheeling and dealing for veteran impact bats and arms to coalesce around theyoung stars he’s mentioned.
This move would help to cure baseball of an epidemic thatmany have debated over the past few seasons, taking dominion over the past 2 offseasons in particular - wherein the ‘bad’ or losing teams are becomingcomplacent in their sub .500 records and wary of pushing the envelope, openingthe door for the giants of the league to swoop up free agents and trade chipsof such teams and, in effect, widening the gap and threatening the disparity inOctober baseball.
A few things are true for opening day baseball. First, it istrue that opening day is just one out of 162 games, relatively inconsequentialto determining how a team will perform over the other 161 games or theplayoffs. However, it is also true that opening day is, in other ways, the mostimportant day of the season. For some it is a welcome back home, while forothers it is a first day in a new place. For others still, it is seeing their favoriteteams back in actions, while others it is the overall vibe and atmosphere – thepacked crowds, ceremonial first pitches, the standing ovations players old andnew receive. Opening day is important in its universality, its global reach,and the various different ways it is celebrated and spent by people across andbeyond the 50 states. So, what does opening day mean to you?
