I’ve been to several Opening Day games over the years, and they are always wonderful. Everyone is in a good mood and full of optimism. The Dodgers have been pretty good in Opening Day games of late, and that optimism has carried throughout the season. In some cities, that good mood only lasts until the fifth inning or so. By the end of the first homestand, fans start looking towards the start of preseason football. We’re a little spoiled here.

Too bad we can’t go to the games this year. I had a great idea for a fan giveaway when the Astros come to town in September. Every fan in the stadium would receive a souvenir drum and drumstick, and we’d all bang the drum when the Astros were at bat. I figured it might confuse them a little. But it looks like we won’t have the opportunity to attend those games unless we’re made of cardboard.

As I mentioned, I actually kind of enjoyed the cardboard cutouts of fans that were placed in the seats. You probably didn’t see my cutout … they put it up in the concession line. The cutouts were actually rather lifelike. They even had them in the first row of the outfield bleachers. I thought it would be kind of cool if someone hit a home run and knocked a cutout’s head off. Maybe we’ll see that this year. I think it would definitely make the highlight reel. The cardboard fans behaved themselves, too – no drunken brawls. The only problem was when a cardboard beach ball fell onto the field. 

I do think they missed a great opportunity. It would have taken a bit of engineering, but it would have been neat to see the cutouts do the wave at some point. I guess they’re not going for that much realism, though. If they were, they would have removed most of the cutouts by the 8th inning.

The game was carried by ESPN, and I think they wanted to give the viewer the feeling of actually coming to the game. That must be why we didn’t get to see the first pitch or the first batter.  Between traffic and the long walk in, I’m usually never around for the first batter either.

It had been such a long time since I’d seen the players, I hardly recognized them. I mentioned to my wife that Kershaw needed a haircut. She told me Dustin May was pitching. Easy mistake. I would have figured it out eventually because he was throwing right-handed. But in a stadium full of cardboard fans, nothing would have surprised me.

I must say it did drive me crazy to see foul balls bounce around in the empty seats and nobody going after them. And why did they have the big animatronic scoreboards on? Who was looking at them? Did they show that between-innings video where you find the baseball under one of the hats? At one point, an ad for Forest Lawn came on one of the scoreboards. That seemed eerily appropriate in the silence of the stadium.

But the bottom line is, BASEBALL IS BACK! Opening Day did arrive in 2020! And within two innings, I was complaining about everything.

…just like always. 

Life is good!

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