Opening Day - your earliest memory?

[JustinD]

I have been to many opening days, and many have great memories, admittedly a couple have near zero memories at all depending on the company .

My favorite is opening day 1984 at Tiger Stadium with my Webelos Cub Scout Den for the final year of scouts. The fun was plentiful, the Tiggers beat the Rangers, and we all spent the day exploring the old Stadium and piling down snacks. What a great day with your "Stand by Me" friends before girls and junior high change the focus.

Other than that, my favorite spring training preseason moment was in the final stages of the informal times when players often just acted like you and I and approachability was real. 1982 my grandparents had not fully moved to Florida but rented a condo near Vero. We bought tickets to see my beloved Tigers play the Dodgers at Holman in Dodgertown. I had packed a glove and ball, just in case like any kid would do, but no fouls my way during the game.

As we walked back to the car my childhood hero was walking to his car (or the bus, not sure really). I was always in awe of the size and strength of Lance Parrish in comparison to other players of the day and he was imposing. However, not too imposing for me to get so excited to walk up and ask for an auto on my ball. No one had a pen and it was a real letdown. Lance sensed the disappointment and asked as I had a glove and ball, would I like to play catch? Um, of course!

A very young Steve Sax who I had no clue about but would go to win the ROY that season was also walking by. Lance pulled him aside and I spent what seemed like forever, but really was likely 5 minutes as a 8-9 year old playing catch with my hero and some other MLB player named Steve Sax, lol.

A red letter day for a kid visiting Grandma.