Well, it’s a little less than ideal that the Mets are playing on Friday instead of Thursday, but there’s still a lot of baseball happening today that I’m excited about.

And I was looking forward to live blogging it so I’ll stick to the original plan.

I’ll be here all day - we’ll talk about baseball, life, and more.

Feel free to interact via the comments or on any of the social media linked at the bottom of the post.

Let’s get it started.

12:55pm: I’ve decided I’ll go with a top-down format because if you pop in for a certain amount of time and catch up that’s the natural way to read the page. And then you can just scroll down to find where you left off.

I can’t tell you how great everything would have worked out today for the Mets game. Here it is, almost 1pm, and the girls had an early release from school. Everyone is home, we had our hot dogs Opening Day lunch together, I’ve finished any work that was due by today and tomorrow, and I’m sitting in front of the TV ready for the game. Unfortunately, there’s no game until 3pm. So the baseball updates will start then. Regular life updates between now and then.

1:10pm: I guess while we’re getting things started I’ll catch you up on some of what I’ve already written in anticipation of the season: a little season preview for these Mets, and some of my thoughts about the early part of the season. I do hope you’ll keep coming back all season long. A lot of this is just me having a way to place to put my baseball thoughts, but I like to think there are people out there who are interested in what I have to say.

Side note: For some reason I can’t get that picture at the top of the page to line up on the left like I usually format. It doesn’t look terrible, actually, but I like consistency in my posts. I guess I have all day to figure it out.

1:35pm: So here’s a little look at how the day is going to go for me. Baseball starts at 3pm with the Orioles hosting the Angels, so I’ll be watching that one, getting a look at Corbin Burnes’ first start with his new team and a big AL contender at that. A slew of games start at 4pm so maybe I’ll go to the 4-game view on MLB.TV at that point.

BU hockey has their first NCAA Tournament game starting at 5pm so I’ll work that in then amidst all the baseball.

And at some point today I’ll find out if I was selected for the New York City Marathon lottery. I do not have high hopes - it’s a very low percentage shot. I’ve been avoiding checking my email…but actually having that lottery happen on Opening Day is nice because I won’t really dwell on it. I have plenty to distract me from it.

In other running news, since we’re on the topic, I was planning on running the Providence Half Marathon on May 5, and I found out today they canceled it. I had a feeling because they had not set a route yet and there have been huge issues in Providence with a major roadway shut down. It did not seem to make good sense to hold a marathon. The question now is, what do I do instead?

2:20pm: So here’s the reason I’m not just live-blogging Mets Opening Day tomorrow. It’s very exciting - I’m getting LASIK surgery in the morning. Which will allow me to watch many many Mets games over the coming years without having to worry about my glasses or contact lenses….but it will mean my recovery tomorrow afternoon will cause me to miss watching Opening Day. (Maybe I’ll be awake enough to listen.) So we’ll enjoy today, get through tomorrow, and then see the Mets through new eyes beyond that.

Also, exciting news: I was finally able to adjust the picture at the top of the post. It seems to have been a Squarespace error, not an error by me. And as of 2:20pm…no word on the New York City Marathon.

2:53pm: I have officially turned on the Orioles game. Very cool to see the players running in from center field as they are introduced.

3:19pm: A Mike Trout home run! This is going to be the greatest season ever!

3:30pm: Thank goodness it’s not raining in Baltimore. I was worried this was one of those storms that was going to just ruin Opening Day baseball up and down the east coast.

I’ll tell you the other good thing about the Mets postponement, and the fact that they made the announcement yesterday: I remembered how hard it was to find a rhythm early last season. Day games, night games, days off, rain outs - the first couple of weeks of the season were so hard to settle in to - and I’m thinking as a fan…let alone the players finding their rhythm. I know that sounds like an excuse - it is - but it is legit. So hopefully after tomorrow everything settles in and players can find a groove.

Also, Pete Alonso has talked about this a couple of times - it’s the first time in his career he’s opening the season at Citi Field in front of fans. The last time the Mets opened at home was 2020, which obviously had no fans in the stands. Kind of wild it hasn’t happened in that long.

And a New York City Marathon lottery update: I’m seeing people on Instagram who have already had rejections. One person I’ve seen was accepted. Still no news for me.

3:50pm: The funny thing about the Mets and Brewers being rained out is that in Milwaukee there’s a dome sitting unused and if they had the game in Milwaukee they’d be playing. The Red Sox, for instance, would have been rained out today in Boston…but they’re in Seattle. Which leads to a question I talked to a friend about last night - which is worse, having a 10pm Opening Day start, or having to wait until Friday? On the one hand, the Red Sox are guaranteed to play today, but it’s so late.

I also wondered if the fact the Sweet 16 is being played in Boston meant the Red Sox had to start on the road to ease hotel stress in the city.

I’m probably going to be switching to the Blue Jays-Rays as my primary 4:10pm game. I have Jose Berrios on my fantasy team. I promise this will be my only fantasy comment all day, because I know that’s not interesting to anyone but me: It’s so hard these first couple of weeks of the season to get used to new fantasy players and rooting for guys you didn’t have last year, remembering who’s on your team and all that. As it turns out, I have no Orioles this year.

4:00pm: Last thought on this Orioles-Angels game before I switch…Angels fans who must have felt so great after a Mike Trout first inning home run must be so down after the sloppy play in the field. They look terrible. I can’t imagine Ron Washington lets that happen for long…but it’s a tough way to start.

4:10pm: I guess it’s worth watching the top of the 1st in the Yankees game too, just to see Juan Soto’s first at-bat with the team.

4:22pm: A lineup with Juan Soto, Aaron Judge, and Giancarlo Stanton, if it’s going well, could be dominant. If it’s going poorly it will look a lot like the top of the 1st of Opening Day - Torres strikeout, Soto walk, Judge 6-4-3 double play.

Meanwhile, Berrios gave up a leadoff homer to Yandy Diaz, then got three straight outs. I end up watching a lot of Blue Jays games and a lot of Rays games during the season for some reason. These teams are very familiar to me.

4:33pm: OK, we are BASEBALLIN’ now! This is what I’ve been waiting for. I have to do some parenting stuff so I’ll use it as a quick chance to separate from the games and rest my eyes. (I’m going to show up at the appointment tomorrow with baseballs where my eyes should be and mess up the surgery.) I’ll be back with hockey in the mix after 5.

5:45pm: I’m back. Lots going on. Hockey has started. I fed the dog. The amount of baseball is overwhelming but in a good way. I love it.

Oh, I did not get into the New York City Marathon via lottery. So I’ll need to explore other avenues. (Ha. Unintentional pun.) (Because New York has lots of avenues.)

One weird observation of these games so far - often it seems pitchers come out of spring training way ahead of the hitters. But there has been a lot of offense across the league so far today. For whatever that’s worth.

6:15pm: It’s almost dinner time. Our Opening Day fare continues with burgers. This all would have been so good if the Mets had played today. Oh well.

Fair’s fair - I should follow up my earlier Yankees comment by pointing out they’ve done a nice job coming back in Houston. After being down 4-0 they just took a 5-4 lead in the 7th. The game is far from over, the way runs are scoring today, but Yankees fans have to be feeling good about that.

6:45pm: Things are settling down a little bit. Games are going final, I’m kind of catching my breath. Tomorrow will be weird. I love being able to watch these games, but obviously, I get a little obsessive about it. It’s going to be weird not being able to do that tomorrow. I’ll make up for it on Saturday.

I need to read up again on what I’m allowed to do tomorrow afternoon.

This is fun, too, which I just remembered - I reorganized some of my stuff this week, getting rid of a bunch of shirts I no longer wear, and sort of rearranging the ones I do. I have SO many Mets shirts. I was thinking about maybe doing a different shirt-a-day over the summer and chronicling it here. That might be fun.

7:03pm: Oh man. I just switched on the Marlins-Pirates in extra innings and a bad baserunning move in the top of the 10th might just have cost the Pirates their chance at winning. BUT I also just learned Oneil Cruz hit a homer in the 8th to tie the game. Good for him, after missing most of last year with an injury. Baseball is better when young exciting players like him are healthy and playing well.

That was an exciting ending to the Yankees-Astros game I spent a lot more time watching than I expected. In the bottom of the 9th Juan Soto threw out the tying run at the plate and the Yankees held on. You have to be careful not to put too much stock into Opening Day. But after the Yankees lost Gerrit Cole to injury they needed good news and that’s a good season opening win to bring back some good feelings.

7:25pm: All right, I think it’s time to wrap things up. This was fun. Maybe we’ll live blog afternoon baseball if the stars align with work and family stuff during the season.

I’ll watch the Cubs-Rangers for a bit tonight, maybe a little of the men’s basketball games, but I will certainly not make it to the 10pm starts.

BU is headed for a win. Marlins and Pirates are headed to the 12th. Other takeaways: 1-0 Tigers over White Sox sounds like a good time. I love a good low-scoring game. Tigers might be good this year, but it’s hard to gauge this game because the White Sox should be awful. Didn’t even keep track of a couple of these other 4pm games - Dodgers-Cardinals, Padres-Giants, Nationals-Reds and Twins-Royals I’ll have to read up on.

I have one more kid pickup to do and then I guess I’ll just throw on some eye makeup and maybe take a sauna or a jacuzzi before the procedure tomorrow.

NO! WAIT! That’s what the paperwork says I should NOT do. Whew. Good thing I caught that.

OK. Thanks for reading along. Looking forward to doing it again and writing about plenty of Mets baseball this year. Don’t expect an Opening Day reaction from me tomorrow but I would imagine I’ll want to write something over the weekend at some point.