There is no doubt in my mind that spring is my favorite season. The sun stays up later, the grass begins to grow, my grill gets more use… above all, though, is the fact that it means baseball and, more importantly, the Boston Red Sox have returned.
Sure, they’ve been playing baseball since late February this year, but that’s spring training, which is like the appetizer before the main course; it’s only meant to whet your palate. We want the main course, regular season baseball, and more importantly, we want regular season baseball in New England. That first week on the road? Simply the aroma of what’s to come.
… and that first bite? That’s Opening Day at Fenway Park. It matters not whether this season follows a world championship that ends 86 years of frustration or a bitter last-place finish that took an entire winter to wash the taste from our mouths. That was then; this is now. As I wrote in last season’s Opening Day post: “It matters not whether the team is picked to contend or finish as also-rans. No, the focus of today is the return of baseball to one of the most beautiful ballparks in all of baseball.”
Nothing speaks to me more that spring has returned to New England better than the scene from Fenway Park on Opening Day; there is no equal.