Forget those two days in Atlanta.
Forget 07.
The season begins today, and new memories are to be made.
I know we don’t get to start the season over, but in my mind, the season doesn’t officially begin until the Mets open at home. Its more of the feeling you get returning to Shea for the first time (and the last time) on Opening Day. It is a sort of nostalgic, out of body experience when you first step out of the tunnel and the green grass envelops your eyesight, and you realize your long lost love has returned. Baseball is (un)officially back in your life again.
Mets fans will savor this a bit more than past Opening Days because that moment you walk out of the tunnel for the first time at Shea will never happen again. There will be the wall of CitiField beckoning in the shadows of the left field wall, reminding us of what is to end and what is to soon begin. I’ll soak in the moment a little longer this time, trying to store it away to remember at a later date, when Shea is reduced to rubble and I will be fighting tooth and nail to get a seat at the much smaller new home of the Mets.
This will be an Opening Day like no other. Our much maligned home deserves a fond farewell. It isn’t the prettiest, it isn’t the most comfortable, but neither was my childhood home, but I still have fond memories of it and I will carry them with me wherever I go.
They can take away the stadium but they can’t take away 86.
They can’t take away 2000 and the epic Game Five of the 99 NLCS.
They can’t take away Marlon’s inside the park home run on a rain delayed game some years ago that led to Cliffy’s walk off.
They can’t take away Mike’s goosebump enducing homer after 9/11 that gave a heartbroken city a moment to rejoice.
The stadium will go, but the memories will linger on.
…including the memory today when I walk out of tunnel on Opening Day for the very last time.
