Opening Day

A festive view of Lot FU

Opening Day is the most peculiar of occasions, an experience sort of like if Christmas Eve was considered the highlight of the holiday season.

Baseball is no doubt underway, but really it started four days ago in Detroit. To be sure, this is the first home game of the year. But then it isn’t like a normal ballgame.

For starters, there’s the parking. I expected a mess, but this was completely insane. The details needn’t be recorded for posterity, because who wants to read a long tale of parking woe in a blog that’s supposed to be about baseball? However, I was disappointed that with the thousands of cars jamming the lots, the stands weren’t full. That’s a lot of people tailgating or milling around in the Fun Zone.

As cold as it was, I can see why anyone who wasn’t inclined to watch the game wouldn’t sit still. It was cloudy, windy and 45 degrees, which may be the lowest temperature we’ve ever experienced at the K. We lasted through both team’s batting orders before beating a hasty retreat to the warmth and comfort of Sensory Experience of Asia.

So really it was like having a ballgame without actually having a ballgame. And that’s sort of okay. Today it was great to be out at the ballpark for the first time this year. Tomorrow it will be great to actually see a game for the first time this year. The day after that we can go back and watch the Opening Day game on TV. By the end of the month we’ll get the first night game, the first game where it’s comfortable enough to keep score, and so on.

That makes the start of the season less like Christmas and more like Hanukkah.