ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Opening day is popcorn and brass bands, "Down in front!" and full stands. Hope and faith and hot dogs with mustard (which, come to think of it, covers them both -- hope and faith).
It is suntan lotion (out West) and woolen mittens (hello, East), beach balls and bull's eyes.
"We can't control the way other teams perceive us or go about their business," Mike Scioscia, manager of the world champion Anaheim Angels, was saying Sunday afternoon before his team took that first step toward what it hopes will be a title defense. "That doesn't factor into our plans.
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| Opening day means Juan Gonzalez and the Rangers have hope for a worst-to-first season.(AP) |
Opening day is parties and parades, stiff breezes and nachos swimming in cheeses. It is for raising the world championship flag in one ballpark, and for dreaming in 29 others.
"Envy, yeah," Buck Showalter, the Texas Rangers' new manager said as the hour of Anaheim's flag-raising drew near. "I'm not sure about awe or indifference.
"It kind of slaps you in the face. You understand the reality of it. Teams like Atlanta and Cleveland have been great for so many years, but they didn't get the last game under their belts.
"I think a lot of people in our game are proud of what the Angels accomplished."
It is a time to look back, yes -- but, mostly, it is a time to look ahead. Fresh starts all around -- including, even, for the world champions. In a classy pregame ceremony Sunday, the trio designated to raise the Angels' world championship banner -- right fielder Tim Salmon, former owner Jackie Autry and longtime season ticket holder Tom Amberry, 83, representing the fans -- committed the first error of the season.
They raised the flag prematurely during a video tribute, quickly lowered it, then raised it again at the proper moment when the video was finished and all eyes were on the flag.
"We messed up," Salmon explained. "We got a little excited. I'm thinking, 'We're supposed to do this after Sosh (Scioscia) talks.' But they got it going so I went along with it. The guy coordinating it just messed up.
"Hey, it's the first time for everybody."
Opening day is all about clean slates and big dreams, urban renewals and clever schemes. It is a perfect day to call in sick to work, play hooky from school or simply to close your eyes and anticipate summer.
It is a 24-year-old kid starting the first game of the season after starting the biggest, and final, game of last season -- Game 7 of the World Series. And yes, while Anaheim's John Lackey became the first rookie to win a World Series Game 7 in 93 years last October, he was just another guy on opening day here as Texas knocked off the Angels 6-3.
Which served as a nice reminder of some of opening day's other qualities, too.
"It's one game," Lackey said. "I think we might lose again this year, too."
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| Opening day is for GMs like the Angels' Bill Stoneman to show off their hardware. (AP) |
Opening day is the unveiling of expensive new free agents -- is it Jim Thome vs. Ivan Rodriguez on Monday, or Philadelphia vs. Florida? -- and, this year, it is the christening of a new ballpark in Cincinnati. Which, by the way, is where opening day should start each and every season. Not in Japan, not in Anaheim, not in Montreal.
Cincinnati, the game's original Garden of Eden long before it moved east or west, always has treated opening day as a religious service -- complete with a parade. Opening day should be in Cincinnati, even if it only gets an hour's head start, before moving to Detroit or Milwaukee or, yes, Japan.
But we're not here to complain, because there is no complaining on opening day. Not even about the long waits to get into the parking lot or the concession lines. Because you know going in that opening day also is like going to church on Christmas or Easter: The joint is filled with people who won't be back for another year.
For openers, you never know what you're going to get. Sammy Sosa joining the 500-homer club? He's got 499, and who knows, he could hit No. 500 off of newly minted Mets starter Tom Glavine on Monday.
Opening day is ageless Roger Clemens, 40, making what likely will be the final regular-season March start of his career ... and an organization in Detroit fielding a team so green that none of the infielders are older than 24 and the No. 2 pitcher in the rotation, Jeremy Bonderman, will make his major-league debut at the age of 20.
"It can be done," new Tigers manager Alan Trammell said this spring, eyes twinkling. "I know. I did it."
Opening day is a time to keep pessimism at arm's length, because why look for the negative on the one day each season on which the canvas is -- for a few hours, at least -- unsoiled?
Why, we've yet to encounter the first ceremonial volcanic eruption of the new year from Tampa Bay manager Lou Piniella ... and this is a guy dispatching to the mound for opening day a kid named Joe Kennedy (against Pedro Martinez, no less), who served up 26 hits and 17 runs -- 16 earned -- in his final 8 2/3 innings this spring.
"The guy who has been pitching the worst for us is our opening day pitcher," Piniella said. "How about that?
"We're trying to trick Boston."
And why not? A clean slate is the predominant theme of the day -- though a sense of humor can never be underestimated, either. Thankfully, San Diego general manager Kevin Towers, whose team has been decimated by a season-ending injury to Phil Nevin and a potential season-ending injury to closer Trevor Hoffman, understands that.
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| On opening day, managers like Mike Scioscia welcome new managers, like Buck Showalter, back to the show. (AP) |
"I've had guys fall out of deer stands," Towers said, referring to the dearly departed former Phillies pitcher Carlton Loewer, still trying to come back from Triple-A. "So a watermelon, to me, is not as crazy."
Opening day serves a gentle reminder to appreciate the moment, and to take nothing for granted. Why, in the very first at-bat of 2003 Sunday, Lackey walked new Texas center fielder Doug Glanville to start the game.
Talk about accomplishing the impossible -- in 73 at-bats this spring, Glanville didn't walk once.
"I'm never going to panic out there, but it puts you off on the wrong foot," Lackey said.
Still, on opening day, no matter what, it's difficult not to smile. And when you begin the day by raising a world championship banner to full staff, well, it's difficult to suppress the goofiest smile you've had since eighth grade, when Laura, the girl you had a crush on, actually said hello.
"It was great," center fielder Darin Erstad said. "I'm not going to lie to you. I had goose bumps when they were playing that stuff on the big screen."
Said Scioscia: "It was incredible. I think that when you go through the planning stages, you're reading what's going to happen and it sounds nice. But when you go through it and experience it ... it was incredible."
The world championship banner has been hoisted. But for 30 teams -- yes, including even the Angels -- the chase is on again.
