My jaded got faded

Over the years I have been to many, many Milwaukee Brewer opening days as part of being on the staff at my previous station. We were neck deep in all the parties---we always threw a big party attended by many and then I was at some sort of live broadcast afterwards. They were drunken affairs with people stumbling, yelling, and generally being idiots. Truth be told, we hated that day.

So, I was colored in my opinion about opening day. As this year's day approached, I copped an attitude and lumped it in with all my other former-have-to-be-there-boy-do-I-hate-this days like St. Patrick's Day, New Year's Eve, and Halloween. Amateur nights (and days) where people lose their minds by consuming way, way too much alcohol. I couldn't have physically and mentally distanced myself farther from what I thought was a collection of beer, smoke, rudeness and vomit.

But as I listened to Bob Ueker call the game as I drove home and heard him capture the absolute joy of the ballpark as the Brewers took it to the Dodgers---something melted a little in me. It sounded right. The sky was bright blue, the temperature was an astonishing 60 degrees and it seemed that good old American baseball was reclaiming its spot in our conscience.

I watched Channel 12's coverage at 5pm. I didn't see any drunken idiots standing behind the poor TV reporter trying to do a stand up----instead, I saw happy, happy baseball fans with hope in their eyes and promise in their hearts for the season. I saw an older gentleman whose eyes twinkled as he offered that "this might be the year". He waxed on about the pitching changes---the right catcher---and he was so happy. More of me melted.

Then I read the Journal Sentinel this morning and was taken to the upper deck where a little boy was with his dad. The boy brought his glove to catch a foul ball (a hopeless prospect where he was sitting)---and there was the happiness of this little guy and his dad on a day he'd remember the rest of his life. I was thawed.

I'm sure there was a large measure of people getting loaded and causing trouble---but I had to admonish myself that I had insulated myself on a pedestal where I wasn't finding the GOOD in an event. I think the world is....well, the world---and it's rife with all kinds of evil and bad----but on a day like yesterday when there was unabashed joy in the heart of a little boy in the upper deck and the hope of a retired man happy with a new catcher---I learned--AGAIN--that God gives us the flowers amongst the cracked concrete.
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