In this time of political excitement, it's hard to believe that a guy like me could have something that he finds more exciting than poll numbers, political gossip and super-delegate counting. However, if you knew me well enough, you'd know that conservative causes fall behind sports as my real passion in life.
Monday is the real Opening Day for Major League Baseball. I know, I know, you're going to say that the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics started things off in Japan last week or that the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves played in Washington, D.C., last night, but come on, we all know that the real Opening Day is that special Monday when nearly every team is playing.
Those of us here in Arizona are a really lucky bunch. We've been able to watch plenty of baseball — for really low prices I might add — for the last month or so as the home of MLB's Cactus League. In fact, the lucky fans came out in record numbers. The Cactus League had over 1.3 million fans watch its spring training games this year, providing a much-needed boost to the Arizona economy.
Why did so many show up? Because baseball is as American as apple pie and hot dogs. In fact, it's nearly a sin if you don't get a hot dog at a ball game (but if that's not your thing, check out the new Fatburger at Chase Field when you roll in there this season for a Diamondbacks game).
You see, at baseball games, eating food is half the experience. In response to this, many teams are picking up on something that was tried out at Dodger Stadium over last season, instituting all-you-can-eat seating sections where you'll buy your ticket that includes all the food you can eat for a certain dollar amount — this just another reason why baseball is an all-American experience.
Baseball has seen its popularity go through a roller-coaster ride over the last decade or so, but with last year's attendance records that were set around the league and already 19 million tickets sold on the mlb.com Web site alone, we're looking at a successful year ahead of us.
Not only are we looking at a successful year in attendance, we're also possibly looking at our first year without Barry Bonds and the nightly reports from ESPN's Pedro Gomez on his status — yes, it will definitely be a good year … even if for nothing else but that reason alone.
With all this said, it's time to sit around in class and forget about our problems for a while. Instead of looking up MySpace and Facebook on your laptops in class, turn it on to mlb.tv and catch up on our national pastime on what should be an American holiday in its honor. It only comes once a year, and as always, I'm sure that there will be a lot of people calling in sick on Monday. After all, how do you explain sold-out stadiums on a workday?
Yes, it's baseball season, and what a baseball season it should be. After all, my favorite team, the Chicago Cubs, is set to win the World Series in this the 100th anniversary of the last Cubs World Series victory and finally dispel the curse of the billy goat once and for all. Or at least I can hope, right?
Either way, it's Opening Day — time to play ball.
T.J. Shope is hoping that in addition to watching MLB, everyone will go support our No. 1 ASU baseball and softball teams. T.J. can be reached at: thomas.shope@asu.edu.
