After everything that has transpired these last seven months, Opening Day will finally see the light of day on Thursday, July 23. 

Opening Day is the day when fans across the U.S. make the trek to the ballpark, feast their eyes on the traditions of America’s pastime while relishing on all the new foods.

But this year, there will be no ballpark with the best snacks, no usher to direct you to your seat, and most importantly, no hootin’ and hollerin’ from fans.

On Monday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts put it all into perspective.

“When you drive up to the ballpark, and there’s just that feeling you could see and feel the employees getting excited,” Roberts said. “As the fans start coming in, you feel that energy certainly heightened every moment up until the (National) Anthem and obviously the bunting and players and coaches on the third- and first base-lines.

“So it is certainly going to be different, but our guys have really handled different very well, and they really understand the responsibility to go out there and what baseball means to all of us as a country and as professionals to go out there and we’re still competing.”

Opening Day starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw didn’t shy away from his excitement to start the season.

“It didn’t look very good for a while that we were going to get to play,” the Dodgers’ ace said. “So I think just as far as the excitement of the season goes, very excited, almost a sign of relief really that all the three months you spent working and trying to stay ready, and the three weeks here trying to get ready for the season might actually pay off into some type of season.

“Our team has a lot of special guys, a lot of special talent; it’s not going to look the same, it’s going to be a lot different than we expected. But at the end of the day, it’s still baseball, and I’m excited about that.”

Last year, Kershaw began the season on the injured list due to inflammation of his left shoulder, capping his streak of consecutive Opening Day starts at eight. He would go on to finish the season with a 3.03 ERA over 29 games (28 starts).

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