Opening Day

I've watched Sex and the City: The Movie twice, which is at least three times more than I thought I'd ever watch it. But I've done so because I love my wife. And the goodwill from it gets all used up on days like today:

Opening Day...along with my endless tidbits of information about all things baseball that she might not know and needs to in order to fully enjoy the moment and the coming season.

What it prompted was this prayer from her as the Braves were wrapping up their opening day win:

Dear God,


Please let me have sons that are not just interested in baseball. Please let them be interested in other sports and good in other sports. 


Amen.

I'll pray that same prayer too, but not with the same sentiment. Though I'm not sure that baseball will be able to continue in the national spotlight in the coming years (due to a myriad of factors), I do hope it's around for them to play and to follow. I was lucky to grow up with a baseball team that discovered winning just as I was discovering newspaper box scores. A new right fielder came up at the same time my attention span grew to be able to follow a sport over the course of several months. Dave Justice and the Atlanta Braves were my first love in sports.

It was magical to be a part of their rise from worst to first, and then watch as they never dropped out of first for 14 seasons. Playoffs were a given, though the championships were not. The '95 season was the culmination of all the almosts and not-enoughs from the previous finishes. As sweet as Game 6 was, with my favorite pitcher (Glavine) getting the win in a 1-0 game in which my favorite player (Justice) hit the homerun, the '96 series was just as bitter and bothers me to this day. Playing in New York against the Yankees for the first two games, the Braves went up 2-0 and headed to Atlanta with strong possibilities of sweeping and getting back-to-back championships. Jim Leyritz, among others including the Braves' closer, had other plans and destiny jumped to the Yankees for the rest of the '90s.

The disappointment I still feel from that '96 series is part of why I love following baseball. There's also joy, nostalgia, ballparks, conversations, box scores, radio broadcasts, and many other things to go with that disappointment, but I enjoy baseball and the memories it's given me through the years. And that's what I hope it can give our kids someday...years from now.

For today, Justice and Glavine are long gone from the lineup. Bobby Cox is starting his final year of coaching, 29 total years, 25 of those with the Braves. But Jason Heyward may be a better version of Justice and Tommy Hanson may be a combination of Smoltz and Glavine. There's hope in the spring air. Hopefully, the balls that were flying out of the park today will keep jumping off the Braves'  bats all the way through November.

16-5 is a great start to the season. Let's go Braves!