PLAY BALL !! OPENING DAY!!! GO CARDINALS!!!!

If you can't get pumped up for Opening Day, then your heart must not bleed Cardinal red. And this year, for the opening of a new stadium! The only way it gets any better is to have Opening Day tickets. Thanks to my daughter, I have them!
So Scott and I will be there, probably several hours early to take it all in. I can't imagine being there for the opening of a brand new stadium, that by all indications is one of the very best in major league baseball. Courtney was there for the opening of Petco Park last season and said it was awesome. She'll be attending the Padres opener today, but she knows it can't match last season's inaugural event.
Go back to a time when you attended your very first major league game. Remember how huge the stadium looked, how beautiful the green grass, how bright the lights? It looked just like daylight. The food, the souvenirs, (gotta have a scorecard), the sounds, the smells. Magnify it by ten and that's what those of us fortunate enough to be at the opening of The New Busch Stadium are expecting. And that's good, too. When I went to one game, maybe two a season, I marked it on the calendar, even though I didn't have to. I knew when we were going. And I've known about April 10 for a long time, too.
Two years ago I attended the Diamondbacks' home opener. Yesterday at our ticket draft for shared season tickets, the home opener date went first. But it's not the same. Arizona tries, but they don't get it when it comes to baseball. There just wasn't anything special about Opening Day. Maybe we haven't suffered through a too long winter to enjoy Opening Day which can be played indoors anyway. Maybe because we know, like several franchises, that we have little opportunity for playoff baseball. Maybe because we have ten teams here for Spring Training, plus a great college baseball team-- Arizona State. Maybe because we have the Arizona Fall League. We even hosted the World Baseball Classic this spring.
For whatever reason, baseball in St. Louis is and will likely always be the best. I cried at Old Busch Stadium once in a tribute to Jack Buck. I hope I can stop with the lump in my throat when I set my sights on the new one.