It’s officially Spring, and Opening Day!
Why is opening day so fantastic? Because for the one time out of the year, everybody is optimistic, everyone is even, and feels like they have a shot at winning. There really isn’t another time in sports- or in Life- that you can say that. Optimism reigns supreme.
All of the moves in the offseason, all of the retirements, all of the trades, all of the player development, all of the improvements, all of the injuries, all boil down to one thing today: is the team going to be better or worse than the rest of the teams.
In individual sports, you are competing against yourself and a perceived field. No matter how well you play golf, how fast you run or swim, how fast you go down the hill on your skis, you are competing against yourself and a clock or a scoreboard. But also against the other people in that same event. You can break the world record in swimming, but the guy next to you might still beat you.
But in the team sports you’re only competing against other teams and relying on your team to bring their best, and they on you. If your team improves, but the competition improved more, you repressed. Sorry.
All of the posturing in the offseason, all of the experts predicting Championships, all come to an end today as actual facts come in.
A whole new set of data to analyze, #Datanerds.
Happy Opening Day, and as always, Go Sox.
I still am,
That Planning Guy
PS- I read the ” experts” predictions this morning. Almost all were Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers? Really? Way to go out on a limb, guys.