Why Time Begins on Opening Day is the title of a 1984 essay collection by (I think now retired) Washington Post baseball writer Thomas Boswell. I’m not sure how well all of it holds up a few decades later, but I highly recommend his essays if you like longform baseball writing. He also gets my award for “choosing really great titles” — another essay collection is How Life Imitates the World Series.
There is something about Opening Day that makes me get those soft focus, gauzy, wistful feelings about baseball. The renewal of spring.