Opening Day

The Phillies and Braves square off tonight in the first game of the 2009 Major League Baseball season, with 26 teams following suit tomorrow, and the Brewers and Giants opening their '09 campaigns on Tuesday. For diehard fans such as those who will be sitting in a rain-soaked Fenway Park, praying for Mother Nature to let their beloved Red Sox to take the field, Opening Day is an annual tradition. But this is a year when it is so much more.

Baseball has an important place in this country that often goes underappreciated or unnoticed. It is the national pastime, and in times such as this economic meltdown of the United States, baseball has united Americans in a way few other things can.

When the teams took the field to finish the 2001 season that paused for a week due to the events of 9/11, the late Jack Buck stood in a Cardinal red sportcoat in St. Louis, to silence the critics saying baseball had returned too soon, answering his own question of "Should we be here?" with a resounding "Yes!"

As commissioner Selig said earlier this week, "Baseball has always served as a diversion for its fans in difficult times." Ticket prices are tough to swallow sometimes, especially with the opening of two new ballparks in New York, and the always-expensive Sox ticket. However, with some good planning, finding discount games and/or buying tickets online from places like StubHub or eBay, fans can afford to go to games in 2009.

When this country has been knocked down, and when it has been up against the ropes, it has been the game of baseball that has often kept Americans going. And as the calendar has turned to Opening Day in what has already been a tumultuous 2009, there are only two more words to be said: Play ball.

-- MTM