Keyboard Quarterbacks

By Mark La Monica

Sitting on a chair on the corner of 57th Street and 7th Avenue on the sort of beautiful spring Sunday that is morally illegal to remain indoors, a jazz man worked his saxophone. The tune was instantly recognizable.

The jazz man played "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" and there was no way for passers by to refrain from internally reviewing the words of that classic tune.

It was the perfect mood and scene setter for today, Monday, the best sports day of the year! Opening Day for baseball.

It may seem anticlimactic to reveal the No. 1 sports day of the year before the entire list is complete, but changing the way the calendar works is not possible at this time.

Of the other 364 days on the calendar (or sometimes 365), they all are a distant second to the first day of Major League Baseball.

We even set the clocks an hour ahead the weekend before Opening Day just so news of the first pitch will reach us sooner.

Legally speaking, the 2006 season began on Sunday night when the Chicago White Sox hosted and beat the Cleveland Indians, 10-4. But that doesn't count.

Even ESPN, which televised Sunday night's game, has been promoting today's slate of games as "Opening Day."

Besides, the Sunday night opener is for marketing and television purposes, and it was marketing and television purposes that destroyed what was once the fourth best sports day of the year -- New Year's Day when all the college football bowl games were on.

Baseball rosters have been cut to 25. Tickets have been sold. Hot dogs have been ordered. The smell of roasted peanuts and fresh jumbo pretzels wofts through the air whether you're in the stadium or not.

Opening day – the real opening day – of the Major League Baseball season as arrived.

Thoughts of these aromas evoke a few rituals for diehard fans. Whether it's cutting school or creating a new 24-hour virus excuse to tell the boss, there's no way a baseball fan can miss that first televised pitch of opening day on ESPN.

This year, that pitch will roll off the left hand of Mets starter Tom Glavine, just a few minutes after 1 o'clock this afternoon.

Opening day will forever be an American tradition, an American holiday. It really should be printed on every calendar sold in the states.

The beginning of the baseball season ignites fans like no other sport. And when news of the first hit breaks, look out. Fantasy baseball participants begin furiously typing e-mails to league members saying their team will win it all this year because their player got that hit off of someone else's pitcher.

Those watching on television will hear something to the effect of, "And there it is, the first hit of the new season."

Fans at Shea Stadium have two choices. Mets fans will most probably be upset if the first hit of the season came in the top half of the first inning. However, those faithful Nationals fans that made the trek from Washington D.C. will cheer on their hometown heroes.

Either way, the fun of rooting through your favorite team's ups and downs for the next six or seven months has returned. You can wake up every morning, check the box scores. Who had a double last night? Anyone hit a sacrifice fly? Who moved runners up? Who grounded into a double play? Who's pitching for and against us tonight?

Remember last year when Braden Looper served up that two-run bomb to Joe Randa and the Mets gave up three runs in the bottom of the ninth to lose the opener at Cincinnati? Ultimately, the game didn't mean anything in the final standings, but how crushing was that loss for Mets fans? Conversely, Yankee fans reveled in their 9-2 win over Boston on Opening Day at Yankee Stadium.

Victory on Opening Day puts fans in a good mood. That's all we want. Give us some hope for the season, a reason to drop mad cash for tickets and hot dogs and programs and t-shirts and souvenir-cup sodas. Let us start the dumb-but-still-fun "We're on pace for 162 wins."