Baseball

You know the feeling you get right after you just ate a big Thanksgiving dinner? Or how… You know the feeling you get right after you just ate a big Thanksgiving dinner? Or how about the fog that comes over you after taking the SAT? And that place in between tired and sleep? Or like you just exercised for the first time in months?

You are glazed over, practically sedated. You feel like something really big hit you, but you just cannot seem to comprehend what. You don’t care what is going on, and you’re silently bewildered all at the same time.

Yeah, that’s the exact feeling I get when baseball season rolls around every year.

Since the end of the World Series last October, America witnessed three of the biggest sporting events in the calendar year: the BCS Championship, the Super Bowl and, just recently, March Madness. Since New Years, you’ve been gorged with sports. The NBA playoffs are so skin-tight that Emilio Estevez in the ’80s would even feel a little uncomfortable. And the NHL … well, somewhere, someone is playing hockey, one or two people might be watching, and we can just leave it at that.’

So it’s like you’re having this big, extravagant party and everyone is there. The NCAA, NBA, NFL and some hockey guys showed up, and who knows, maybe Tiger and the gang are chillin’ before the Masters tees off.

The house is packed. You’re already kind of flustered with all the people you need to greet and you just want to enjoy the party. Then, all of a sudden, MLB rings your doorbell. The problem is, you didn’t invite them.

Sure, you had it over for drinks back around the winter holidays, but you weren’t expecting to have to socialize with it for at least another month or two.

So even though no one really wants it around, it storms in — without a present, no less — and starts hanging out with all the other sports you have over. It has the television on, yapping in ESPN’s ear and won’t let anyone else hang out with it.

People are trying to absorb all the fun and interesting stories the NCAA has to tell about the Tournament. They want to hear about the playoff seeding from the NBA and are pumped for some first-round action.

NHL is awkwardly hanging out by the chips and dip, but even it has a handful of people asking about Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby.

But still, MLB is all over the room. You can’t shake it. It’s there to stay.

And that is exactly what opening day was like. It is what the sports world — from games on television to highlight reels on all the networks — is going to be like for the next couple of months when you seem to be perpetually saying, on loop, ‘It doesn’t matter, it’s only April’ every time your favorite baseball team loses.

Sure, once the NBA and NHL playoffs are over, people will be crawling back to their baseball and beginning to cozy up with their favorite glove.

You will start to revel in the notion of an afternoon matinee at your home club’s ballpark on a glorious and radiant Saturday. The smell of the dirt, grass, hot dogs and peanuts will ruminate loudly in your nose.

Nothing will be better … in July, that is.

But until then, we are all kind of stuck. It’s hardly spring, and there are about 160 games left for most teams. By the time the season ends, snow might be on the ground. It seems like an eternity of a season lies ahead.

But I guess that’s just the nature of baseball. It kind of lingers there, almost idly. It’s slow, and at first you feel like nothing is happening. Pitch by pitch, game by game, day by day, month by month.

Until that one moment arrives. That burst of intensity, the spurt of excitement. It’s the towering home run or the diving catch that you swear was going to lace the gap for extra bases.

It’s the day in the middle of summer where baseball just seems to fit. The collective heart rate of the fans booms and baseball has arrived in all its glorious tradition and fun.

It is but a couple months away, and soon we will be inviting baseball into our homes. But for now, MLB, the party is full.