Randy Smith: Opening Day Magic

There is something special about Opening Day in baseball more than any other sport. In football and basketball, it's just the first game of the year. But in baseball it's much more than that. In springtime after a long, cold winter, the grass has begun to turn green, leaves are appearing on the trees and where the weather is warmer, shorts and tee shirts are the norm. The popcorn and hot dogs taste better and yes...the beer seems to be colder on Opening Day.

In the Major Leagues teams have been working out and playing exhibition games for the past five weeks. Years ago when the final spring training game was played, teams would board a train and head north for Opening Day. The Opening Day starting pitchers were chosen several days before traveling north. To be an Opening Day starter is always special and always has been. The late Tom Seaver holds the record for most career Opening Day starts with 16. That's two more than the four guys who are tied for second with 14. And as far as the team with the most Opening Day victories...surprisingly it's the New York Mets who have won 41 of 54 opening contests.

Only a pair of players have ever hit three home runs on Opening Day. George Bell of Toronto did it in 1988 and in 1994 "Tuffy" Rhodes of the Cubs did it against the Mets. As far as pitching performances go, there has been just one no-hitter on Opening Day and it was turned in by the great Bob Feller in 1940. Great performances on Opening Day are too numerous to mention all of them, especially in the Major Leagues. But there is one that has stuck in my mind for more than sixty years.

It was 1963, Opening Day for the Madison Little League in Madison, Tn. Teams started playing early in the day and with just two fields to play on, play would continue through the evening It was a beautiful, clear sunny day with warm temperatures for early April. I was playing for the B.F. Myers "Clothiers" which was a men's clothing store with a weird nickname for a Little League team. While waiting for my game to begin, a few of my buddies and I snuck into a big bread truck looking vehicle which had a speaker and a microphone serving as a public address system for player introductions. Someone had left the mic on and we started to do play by play of the game going on. Little did we know the mic was hot, but we were "announcing" the game. After a few minutes my dad and another man came to the truck, cut the microphone off and made us vacate the truck. They obviously had no idea what I would eventually do for my career. I wonder if Vin Scully or Skip Caray started that way.