From 2019: Me and Ryan Zimmerman in Washington, the last time I attended a Mets game on Opening Day.

(Sunday Paper, Year VIII, Issue 14)

I really have nothing to say about baseball’s Opening Day that isn’t cliche.

I love it.

It’s my favorite sports day of the year.

It doesn’t hurt that the Mets have the major league’s best winning percentage on Opening Day…

But it’s less about the games played that day and more about what comes after.

The best way for me to describe how I feel on Opening Day is this: On Opening Day I feel complete.

Like there was a part of me that was missing for six months and I didn’t realize it until it was back.

Similarly, I feel like I breathe easier because it’s baseball season again.

But I didn’t know I was having trouble breathing until I had the baseball breath in my lungs again on Opening Day.

I hope that makes sense. There’s really nothing else I can compare it to, because it’s obviously not anything that’s important in the grand scheme of things…but it’s very important to me.

The other element of Opening Day is the cliche old fresh start idea. I’ve always been big on starting over…and Opening Day represents the big re-start for everyone.

And then, of course, there’s the comfort of knowing not exactly how the next six months will unfold…but at least in knowing how I will spend parts of those next six months.

I love it so much.

And, again, it doesn’t hurt that the Mets notched another win on Opening Day 2023, and then won again on Saturday.

But I know it’s a long season and the wins at the beginning of the year aren’t as important as October wins.

What I also realize, though, is that we’re now on our way through the rest of the season.

And that makes this week better than last week.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

If you’ve been paying any attention lately you probably would have guessed this week’s selection. Matt released another song from the upcoming album, and I like it a lot. Actually that’s understating it - it’s already one of my favorites of his songs. And the video is fun, so I’ll leave that below. Make sure to check out Matt’s website and you can find a way to enjoy/support his work there.

Notes

*There’s a record release show at the end of the month - Saturday, April 29th at Brooklyn Made. This is where you can buy tickets. We’ll be there, maybe I’ll see you too?

*I’m slowly getting back into running mode. Over the next month-plus I’ll just slowly be getting back into the running routine and building up mileage. Nothing terribly exciting, though I am thinking about a possible running challenge for myself for the summer. (Other than, you know, training for a marathon.)

*A disappointing end to the South Carolina women’s basketball season. If you missed it Friday night, they lost to Iowa…which was quite a matchup. Iowa has the best basketball player in the country this year, and she showed it Friday night, scoring 41 points. I’ll be rooting for them to win one more this afternoon in the championship game.

*Next week I get to use my Mets tickets for the first time - Easter Sunday with my brother. Color me excited.

*I do have other thoughts swimming through my head but as so often happens with the beginning of baseball season, that tends to dominate my brain so I'll leave it here for now.

*The social media links are below. Thanks for following along!