The Opening Day That Was Suspended Until Further Notice

One of the biggest unofficial national holidays is here. Opening Day, with the hustle and bustle of baseball, is finally here.

Close your eyes and imagine this: a bluebird color sky overhead, the sound of kids laughing and playing with each other walking up to the stadium. Parents search their purses or pockets for their tickets to scan at the gate.

Others take pictures in front of the iconic Ivan Rodriquez statue behind home plate, some take pictures with each other in front of the stadium entrance, finding any way to savor the moment in what would be memorable in Texas Rangers history.

Ranger Stadium Globe Life — *Photo: Texas Rangers Twitter*

Fans find their seats to beat the rush before opening pitch, hoping to see some batting practice home runs before the game starts. The stadium is a beauty in itself, finally coming to fruition after years of construction, a structure fire, and many doubters on whether or not the stadium would finish before the season began.

It’s here. Opening Day. It’s a picture-perfect day, except for one thing:

It never happened.

No Opening Day. No Texas Rangers. No baseball.

COVID-19 takes over and now there is no Opening Day. The MLB suspends play while the Rangers were in the midst of spring training. This season was supposed to feature players on the rise along with some players fighting their way back to full strength, but with the current pandemic the world is looking at with COVID-19, the sports world is put on hold for the time being.

The Opening Day starter for the season was likely to be Mike Minor, who came off his best season as a Ranger. The lineup was supposed to have rising star Joey Gallo hitting bombs in the new stadium, but now that won’t happen yet either. These professionals have put in great work this spring training, but it was obviously cut short. Now we don’t know when Opening Day will happen, or if it’ll even happen at all.

Even though the MLB has delayed the season, there can be positives that come from this. Willie Calhoun has to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the delayed start to the 2020 season, as he had surgery early in March after suffering a broken jaw on March 8th from a fastball to the chin from Julio Urias. Calhoun has finally been cleared to resume baseball activities and will begin preparing for the start of the MLB season.

Got cleared to start doing my daily workouts and baseball activities again ? Let’s go ?? ? @kellyspics3 @Rangers pic.twitter.com/xgOw66cUOE
— June Calhoun (@11WillieCalhoun) March 26, 2020

No one knows for sure how long the MLB season will be on hold, but many are hoping to resume baseball by the All-Star break. The MLB will have to give teams a notice in advance once they do decide to resume baseball activity to prepare for the season’s new Opening Day.

There are positives that can be looked at from this standpoint as we have to handle this pandemic with seriousness and precaution. Obviously, the lack of sports is still hurting many fans in their hearts. To everyone out there bummed out because of the lack of sports, hang in there. Be safe, be responsible, and take care of yourself and your families as we get through this crisis together.