Another Opening, Another Season

It happens again.  One more year.  One more baseball season.

Back in 1964, there was an opening to a baseball season in a spanking new stadium out on Flushing Bay.

Two years before that, there was an opening to a baseball season in a spanking new stadium nestled deep down in Chavez Ravine.

Shea Stadium is gone now.  Paved to make a parking lot for the spanking new Citi Field.

Dodger Stadium thrives.  The new franchise owners are working hard to expand the facilities yet keep the original charm of what went up in 1962.

Some things change.  Some stay the same.  But baseball moves on.

This is the very first baseball season in decades where I don't have some sort of ticket plan connection to the New York Mets. Tossed aside like the orange and blue checkerboard pattern that used to adorn the ballpark.   There is no place for me in the new place.  

Yes, some things changes as baseball moves on.

My fandom now resides almost exclusively in Dodger Stadium.  A full season ticket holder with a view that almost duplicates what I enjoyed at Shea Stadium for many Saturdays and many seasons.  It is a comfortable transition.

Indeed, I would be lost without the sport.  There is no more idyllic spot for me than a ballpark seat with my scorebook in my lap and a good friend at my side.  Gazing through my binoculars to see who the Dodgers have warming up in the bullpen.  Trying to manage the ballpark one step ahead of Don Mattingly.

It is what I do.  The Dodgers open their home season today. 

And, with me on the premises, that means another baseball season is officially open for yours truly.

Yes, lots of things change.  But that one thing for me stays the same.

Baseball.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.