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Opening Day is the agreed-upon baseball holiday, a sign that the National Pastime is back, winter is over, and your optimism for the revamped Twins pitching staff is undimmed until the 3rd or even 4th inning of Game 1 sometimes.
However, with the advent of wild card play-in games and divisional series, we now have a day like today. A day I would argue is the true best day of the baseball season. Baseball Christmas, if you will.
Four playoff games. Eight teams, all legitimate title contenders. The St. Louis Cardinals aren't involved in any way. Ex-Twins? Oh baby, lemme tell you about ex-Twins: Frankie Liriano! Go-Go! Big Papi! I just assume Casey Blake is still on the Dodgers for some reason even though that can't possibly be correct!
Cleveland and Chicago are looking to break ancient curses that science cannot explain. Texas ain't ever won shit nothing. Washington used to be the Expos, who were weird and goofy and deserved better and a reminder of how close the Twins came to dying, too. Toronto is just going to keep hitting awesome home runs, apparently. Boston is trying to send David Ortiz off into the sunset with one more title. San Francisco has Even Year Bullshit and the best postseason pitcher on planet earth who went to prom with a girl who had the same name as him. Los Angeles has the best regular season pitcher on planet earth who turns into, like, Kevin Tapani in the playoffs.
AND THEY'RE PLAYING ALL DAY TODAY.
Keep this blog post handy for viewing at your favorite pub, work laptop, mom's house, etc.:
- Noon: Toronto @ Texas, TBS
- 3:30: Boston @ Cleveland, TBS
- 4:30: Los Angeles @ Washington, FS1 (I checked, this is a real network)
- 8:00: San Francisco @ Chicago, FS1 (no really, it's a channel)