When you get to be my age time travels faster than ever. I think I've finally figured out that the reason older people talk about this so often is not to make idle chit-chat but because it's so staggering that you can't help but talk about it. It's shocking. I know almost a day doesn't pass without me thinking about how fast the days, months, years move.
I suppose this topic is especially appropriate today as we just moved the clocks ahead an hour last night. It's annually one of my least favorite days of the year and I'm writing this in a half-stupor thanks to that time change.
It's about the last thing I want to do at 60 years old -- speed things up. And here we are charging ever faster toward the start of the Major League Baseball season, which according to my research is starting earlier than at any point since I became a baseball fan.
This is discounting the recent super-early, one-off games or series in a foreign country that MLB likes to do now. For regular ol' opening days in U.S. ballparks, this year will be the earliest general start to the season in the last 50 years (I'm assuming it's the earliest general MLB start ever since as recently as the mid-1960s, opening days were in mid-April, but I haven't researched that far).
The season starts March 25 with one game. But the majority of teams begin March 26. That's when I have to be ready.
The earliest yearly starts for a good portion of MLB teams prior to this since the time I became a fan are:
2025: March 27
2019: March 28
2024: March 29
2018: March 29
2023: March 30
2014: March 31
2011: March 31
2008: March 31
1998: March 31
I admit I still think of the start of the MLB season as occurring in April, which was the case for the first 20-plus years of being a fan. I know I should be happy that baseball is starting early -- the winter has been rough -- but it still seems too early, especially when I look outside.
And it's just another opportunity for me to say "can you believe it's baseball season already?" and annoy some younger person.
Yogi Berra was talking about the infield shadows late in the season when he said "it gets late early out here." But he could've been talking about spring training wrapping up earlier than ever, or daylight savings time, or just being at an advanced age and watching time sail past.
I'm sure when I was in my 20s, I didn't know what Yogi was babbling about. Forty years later, he makes perfect sense.
Comments
Good Job! 😎