Every year in the spring, my anticipation mounts for a new, upcoming baseball season and I’m lulled into somewhat of a sense of security.
During spring training and up through opening day in late-March, I’m usually comforted by the fact that, for the next seven months, there will always be a game somewhere.
With a full slate of 162 games on the calendar, it always feels like the season will never come to a close.
On Opening Day, it is almost as if 162 is some kind of an infinite figure that will never run out.
Of course, that simply isn’t the case and after the season shifts from summer into fall, you realize the number of games left is in the single digits and wonder where it all went.
Baseball is one of those games where progress is charted over longer periods of time and, when you’re in the moment, it moves by at a seemingly slow pace.
Before you realize it, the postseason is right around the corner and what was once a full bag of games has since emptied out, leaving only crumbs behind.
That is precisely how I felt yesterday as I followed the final day of the 2021 Major League Baseball season.
As various postseason matchups were being settled in real time, I watched the year come to an end for many teams, while a select few punched their tickets for more October baseball.
Even though I know it will be back within the next five months, there’s just something depressing about the final day of the season.
Gone is the bright green grass in the infield and outfield, along with the practically endless supply of sunshine, post-game fireworks displays and one-dollar hot dog nights.
All of that has since been replaced by a crisp autumn breeze, accompanied by misting rain, dark grey skies and the theme for Monday Night Football.
It always just feels like most folks, even self-described “die-hards,” have long since tuned out at this point, particularly if their preferred team has had a less-than-productive year.
That, I suppose, is understandable; why waste your time watching the last steps toward the inevitable on television, when football, soccer, basketball and hockey have either started or will be starting before the end of the month?
In that respect, I can understand the rather melancholic vibe that can be found in baseball stadiums that are home to even some of the more successful teams whose seasons didn’t come to a close yesterday.
Even though the official season of summer ended back in September, game 162 of the MLB season is a far more symbolic signal of its yearly finale.
It’s like that deep, sinking feeling you’d get in your stomach the day before the first day of school each year.
Any fun or good times you had on that last day of summer vacation were always mitigated slightly by the fast-approaching nine-month trek that was each school year.
It is a yearly, expected event that I never look forward to, but it does bring me one day closer to the first day of spring training in February.
There is always next season.
Joe Judd is a reporter for the Pioneer. He can be reached at Joe.Judd@pioneergroup.com.
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October 05, 2021 at 04:04PM
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JUDD: Baseball season's final day a typically somber occasion - The Pioneer
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