Today, March 26th 2026, is Opening Day. Technically yesterday was also Opening Day. And tomorrow? Tomorrow will also be Opening Day. Opening Day isn’t constrained by the timekeeping of the 24 hour solar day. Opening Day transcends such limits. Opening Day can last forever, or rather until April. When it’s April, it’s certainly not Opening Day anymore. It’s April baseball.

How did your team’s Opening Day go? I’m writing this around 8:30 pm Eastern time, so there’s a chance that your team hasn’t played yet, and you’re still in that state of anticipation, dread, despair, and hope. Silly, really, to pin so much on Opening Day, when there’s 161 games left to be played after Opening Day, when Opening Day is bound to be laid in the dust and forgotten by mid-May, when Opening Day is just that. Just a start. Just a door to the bleachers.

It feels like spring today, on Opening Day. There are white and elegant peaks of sails on the Charles, rowing teams charging through the water side by side. There are buds on the magnolias. Birds are chirping in the trees. A male turkey adorns himself with all his plumage, and struts. Someone in the elevator has just announced that he will eat lunch outside today; the general response is skeptical but supportive. And there is baseball on the radio, 93.7FM, and the announcer is saying, voice a bit rough with shouting: What a beautiful game, in all its strange ways.

On Opening Day, the Boston Red Sox played the Cincinnati Reds. Garrett Crochet was on the mound for the Sox, what an ace! Huge slingshot of a man, ass and legs for days! If I was the batter, I’d be jumping out of the way just on the wind-up! The Reds pitcher was no joke either, held the Sox scoreless until the seventh when Rafaela drove a run in with the help of some small ball. Two beautiful words: sacrifice bunt. Wow!! It seemed like everyone was on their game today. Marcelo Mayer was 2 for 2 which means that his batting average for the 2026 regular season is 1.000. That’s Opening Day for you. Everything’s perfect, if you’re the Sox. Dire, if you’re the Reds. Sox won 3-0.

I’m so excited for the Sox this year. During the World Baseball Classic, Wilyer Abreu played for Team Venezuela and hit a game-winning home run against reigning champions Team Japan. He tossed his bat so high up in the air it felt like it took an entire minute to come down, and by that time he was already rounding second base headed for third, roaring the whole way, the entire stadium on their feet roaring back. I want that. I want to see that! And then there’s Ceddanne Rafaela, who always looks so hungry and desperate in the batter’s box and who swings at every single pitch like he’s angry at it. I want this year to be his year! Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, Jarren Duran, Garrett Crochet, Ranger Suárez, Willson Contreras—this team is so hungry for it, and it’s so exciting, and they’re probably not going to make it, and it will break my fucking heart. But won’t it be spectacular anyway.

In Why Time Begins on Opening Day, Thomas Boswell wrote: “Baseball isn’t necessarily an escape from reality, though it can be; it’s merely one of our many refuges within the real where we try to create a sense of order on our own terms. Born to an age where horror has become commonplace, where tragedy has, by its monotonous repetition, become a parody of sorrow, we need to fence off a few parks where humans try to be fair, where skill has some hope of reward, where absurdity has a harder time than usual getting a ticket.” That was in 1984.

As far as refuges go, you can’t beat Fenway Park, which is such a place full of ghosts, it feels like there should be no more room for the living. Boston has its fair share of ghosts, but on Lansdowne Street, the ghosts play and watch baseball! And they sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch! And then right around dusk all the light in Fenway turns green and golden. And there are hot dogs. Can we go? Let’s go right now. I’ve already got tickets, but I can be convinced to buy a couple more. Anything’s possible. It’s still Opening Day.