Welcome to The Opener, where every weekday morning you’ll get a fresh, topical column to start your day from one of SI.com’s MLB writers.
Wednesday marks the first day of fall. If you’ve been grocery shopping lately, you’ve probably noticed most stores have already jumped the gun by displaying pumpkins for people to buy more than a month before Halloween. Why they do this year after year is beyond my understanding. But if some people are out there jumping the gun on picking out pumpkins, then so can we, in a metaphorical sense.
Much like Cinderella’s magic carriage eventually turned into a pumpkin at midnight, some stars seem to be nearing the end of their time in the spotlight.