I love baseball. I have since I can remember. I first put on a glove and picked up a ball and bat when I was about four years old. I didn’t know anything at the time, but I learned quickly and played the game I love until well into adulthood.
At the same time I was discovering baseball and developing my skills (meager as they were at age 4 or 5), I began to follow “my team,” the Milwaukee Brewers. Back then, in the early 1970s, that was done through the morning newspaper (checking scores and reading about yesterday’s game) and listening to games on the radio as I re-enacted plays and situations in the backyard.
In life, interests, hobbies and passions come and go, and I’ve had many. But baseball, and specifically, Milwaukee Brewer baseball, has been a constant in my life … all my life. And this week, the first week of the regular season, still brings a sense of excitement and that eternal hope that “this is our year.”
So far, my guys haven’t fared so well, having been swept in their opening series with the Yankees. But it’s a long season, with endless story lines, ups and downs, injuries, streaks, minor-league call-ups and endless drama. And I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.
Because I … love … baseball.
Now, if you don’t already know, in their 55-year history, my Brewers have never won a World Series (came close in 1982). And as a small-market team, they’re rarely chosen as the “team to beat.” But I’m OK with that. Because I’d rather follow a team that plays hard, has fun and brings excitement to the sport. And I love to follow teams and players that respect their craft, their fans and the city they play for. And I think my team does that more often than not.
If you’re a baseball fan, you understand everything about this time of year and how special it is, and you can probably remember the first time you set foot in a major-league stadium: the sights, sounds and smells that you get nowhere else. I don’t get to many games these days, but when I do, it’s like stepping into the stadium again for the first time. It’s electric. And just like every year, I tell myself I’m going to get to more games because that feeling is like few others.
Today, after returning from a disastrous weekend in New York, my “nine” will open at home vs. the Kansas City Royals, and it’s forecast to be a typical Opening Day in Milwaukee: with temperatures in the mid-40s at game time. In my earlier days, my best friend/cousin Mike and I shivered through a number of Opening Days, enduring cold, snow, rain and wind. And I won’t lie to you, it wasn’t always fun, yet we wouldn’t have changed any of it.
These days, the stadium has a roof, so conditions should be near perfect, like a beautiful, warm summer day … the way baseball is meant to be played.
But even if the stadium wasn’t covered, it would still be a perfect day, because my team is back home and taking the field … and I think this is our year.
Man, do I love baseball!
© 2025 David R. Haznaw