There is an old line in some baseball circles that opening day is amateur hour. This is the time when people who will not watch or think about baseball again the rest of the year pay attention, and overreact to whatever happens on the field.
It’s not real, is another way to put it. The pomp and the circumstance and the bunting and the overwrought poetry about green grass and sunshine means a production that’s great for television and sportswriters but lousy for the players and coaches who make their livelihoods in the grind that follows.
Here, then, is quite possibly the best exception: Opening day moved to opening night in Kansas City this year so a standalone, national television audience could watch the Royals’ first World Series championship flag in 30 years be raised.