Day #28- OPENING DAY!

It's Thursday, March 28th.

The 28th day of slicing. Only three more to go.

Even more important than that, it's Opening Day.

The Colorado Rockies face off against the Florida Marlins at 2:10 MDT.

Kyle Freeland, our hometown ace, 17-7 last year, and finished fourth in the Cy Young voting, will be pitching against Jose Urena, who is making his second straight Opening Day start.

I can't wait!

I love, love, love baseball. I'm not sure where this passion came from- growing up, no one else in my family was particularly a baseball fan. We did, however, go to Wrigley Field to see the Cubs play almost every summer, when we went to Chicago to see my grandmother.

The Colorado Rockies came into being in 1991, while I was living in New Hampshire. In 1995, about the time I moved back to Colorado, Coors Field opened. Shortly after that, several of my neighbors and I bought season tickets. We split the package, and each of us went to about a third of the games.  I loved going. Sometimes, if the team wasn't very good, I would have a hard time finding someone to accompany me by the end of the season. I went anyway.

In 2003, I adopted my sons, and my life changed dramatically. They didn't like baseball, for one. Not to play (I tried to get them interested!) and not to watch. It was expensive and not all that fun to take them, and so I became a radio Rockies fan.

Two years ago, I started going to games again. That year, I think I went to two games.

Last year, I was determined to go to more. I have two friends at work, Kathy and Aaron, who are also baseball fans. The three of us are an unlikely trio- Kathy and I are in our sixties, close to retiring, the mothers of grown sons. Kathy's son, Daniel, actually played baseball in high school with Kyle Freeland, our starting pitcher today. Kathy's husband, Ed, doesn't particularly care for baseball, and has never opted to go with us, although Kathy regularly invites him.

Aaron, the third member of our baseball crew, is in his mid-thirties, young and handsome, and lots of fun. I never quite understood why he would put up with hanging out with two women old enough to be his mother, but I guess having companions for baseball is worth it, and we had a blast. Mid-season, Aaron got engaged. His fiancee, Victoria, is from Sweden. She didn't know much about baseball, but we have dragged her along with us, and now our trio has become a foursome. We went to seven or eight games together and texted our way through the rest of them.  I was sad when the season ended.

And now it's Opening Day again. The Rockies are playing in Florida, but you can bet I will have my radio on. Kathy and I are going to a game on April 23rd, and then I'm going again with the kids from school on April 24th.

Take me out to the ball game!