Braves.Today.Com

By Bud L. Ellis
braves.today.com

ATLANTA — It’s the day all baseball fans look toward for warmth and hope on those cold winter nights, when the flickering embers of the Hot Stove and the memories of summer thrills and October glory just aren’t enough.

It’s the day that arrives with the sunrise on this Sunday morning: Opening Day.

Ah, how those two little words take on such a magical meaning when placed together and placed in the context of baseball. It signals the conclusion of the sport’s long hibernation, the waving of the green flag on a new journey, and all the emotions interwoven from offseason to regular season.

From Seattle to Arlington, from San Diego to Boston, and all reporting stations in-between, this is the moment. We’re about to lift the lid on 2009, and it all starts with the Atlanta Braves looking to reclaim the franchise’s place among the game’s elite.

After the worst season in 18 years, after all the things that flew off the rails in 2008, after the productive, yet volatile offseason, here we go. The Braves line up inside Citizens Bank Park tonight to face a Philadelphia squad that will be in full lather from celebrating its World Series title.

Nothing can temper or quash the surge of feel-good that Opening Day delivers to everybody like losing game No. 1. In a sport where 162 games is required before the postseason begins, it may seem folly to place such emphasis on the first step of a six-month jaunt.

And yet, amid the pomp and circumstance of early April, we see and feel October. The ballparks are filled. The emotions are surging. Every heartbeat pounds as that first pitch flies toward home plate, the first movement of a symphony of thrilling highs and crushing lows that every fan base will live through spring, summer and fall.

There will be a definite postseason feel to tonight’s contest. The Braves walk in as an outsider, having not played in the postseason since 2005. Three consecutive seasons spent on the outside of the dance hall, 90 losses and the myriad of issues that doomed 2008, have the Braves and the denizens of Braves Nation salivating at the thought of kicking off 2009, of putting all of the misery of 2008 in the rear-view mirror once and for all.

And that’s what they’ll do tonight, on national TV, against the defending champions, against a division rival that last year beat them 14 out of 18 times, with their new ace pitcher climbing the bump. It’s just one game, but it would make for a resounding statement indeed if Derek Lowe goes out there tonight and fires six or seven strong innings, and the Braves arrive back at their hotel with a one-game lead over the Phillies in the NL East.

We’ve made it to this point, folks. The offseason officially is over. Go-time has arrived, and the Braves are ready to step on the accelerator. And, unlike last season, there is reason to believe the engine under the hood is robust enough to carry this team into the pack of leaders and keep them there until the winds turn cool, the leaves begin changing colors, and the marathon that is a baseball season turns into its final sprint to October.

Opening Day is here. The journey begins now.

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