[Note from Mike: Enjoy the first of many guest posts coming this month!  And...GO ORIOLES!!!]

Guest post by Jason Mollica

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.  - Terence Mann, “Field of Dreams”

Today is one of the greatest days of the year.  It’s a day where you forget about all the snow, the bitter cold winter and embrace the Boys of Summer.  It’s when you gather up your buddies and sit out in the bleachers to watch the greatest sport on earth.  Today is Opening Day is Major League Baseball.

For many, it evokes memories of you and your Dad going to your first game or being able to taste the hot dogs before you even get in your seat.  We all remember our first baseball experience and it’s like nothing else.  Look, I’m a huge football and hockey fan, but today blows both those sports away.  You don’t need a season opening concert by Faith Hill to kick off baseball season. Here’s four reasons why Opening Day is so great.

1. Cincinnati’s Opening Day Parade downtown- The 91st annual event is an unofficial holiday in the city.  Thousands gather to kick off baseball and the Cincinnati Reds campaign.

2. Yawkey Way outside Fenway Park- Red Sox fans do it right.  If you’ve never experienced baseball in Boston, you are missing something.  Opening Day in Beantown is special.  Fans are crowded outside the ballpark in a carnival-like atmosphere.  The BoSox winning a two championships recently has made it even more of an event.

3. Vin Scully-The Voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers. There is no better baseball announcer out there today. He called Kirk Gibson’s classic home run in the 1988 World Series and game six of the 1986 World Series when the Mets won with a “little roller.” He doesn’t rely on gimmicks or screaming to tell you it’s a big moment.  He’s won’t be doing too many more Opening Days, so catch him now.

4. Everyone has a chance- Opening Day is a chance for rebirth, just like spring.  Today, even the Washington Nationals have as much a chance to win the World Series as the Yankees do (ok, maybe that is a stretch, but I’m rolling here). You can sit in the ballpark and believe that your team can hold the trophy at season’s end.

Former MLB commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti penned the great essay called “Green Fields of the Mind.”  It was Mr. Giamatti’s ode to baseball. He wrote:

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.

Today is when everything begins again.  PLAY BALL!

Jason Mollica is a public relations manager at Carr Marketing Communications in Amherst, N.Y. During the summer months, he is the public address announcer for the Triple A Buffalo Bisons. He also blogs about life, career, and everything in between at One Guy’s Journey (http://www.oneguysjourney.wordpress.com). You can also follow him on

Popularity: unranked [?]