...which
was last Thursday this year, or was it a week ago Wednesday, when Seattle beat
Oakland in two official games—in Japan.
The
baseball season used to start on Monday, the first day of the week. Then ESPN
came along, with its Sunday Night Baseball, and two teams would start their
season the night before traditional Opening Day. And this day would be in April,
unless it was in late March, when it was more likely to snow.
(Doing a
bit of Google research, I learn that Opening Day was in Japan, on a Wednesday,
seven years ago. In 2014 Opening Day was in Australia, but I don’t think we
were paying too much attention that day as Jack was still in rehab at the
nursing home. And in 1968, Opening Day was on a Wednesday because Martin Luther
King Jr. had been assassinated the week before, and all sporting events were,
along with others, postponed until after the funeral, on April 9. In fact,
April 10 was the first time all Major League Teams started their season on the
same day.)
I like to
score games when I watch, but I couldn’t watch the Mets’ Opening Day on
Thursday because I had work to do. Today, however, I sat in front of the TV for
the whole game, keeping score by a system devised by Bill James that is too
complicated to describe here, but allows for keeping track of balls and strikes
and makes it much easier to see who gets the RBIs. Here’s what it looks like.
And hurrah, the Mets won, although they made it look harder than it should
have.
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I’m
participating in the 12th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two
Writing Teachers. This is day 1 of the 31-day
challenge. It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a
community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to
slice about. Join in!
