The Bernstein Brief: On Opening Day, It's Hurry Up And Wait
By Dan Bernstein–
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) By the time Opening Day for Chicago baseball is in the books, it will be tomorrow.
These West Coast starts are for you only if you are the type of fan that relishes anticipation more than anything, with the Cubs breaking the seal on their 2016 season in Anaheim at 9:05 p.m. CT, and the White Sox doing so at the same time in Oakland.
We'll finally see Jake Arrieta and Chris Sale in action around halftime of the NCAA championship game, so that works out.
In a way, it's good practice, or at the very least a reminder for patience when it comes to what is still by far the most gradual of our major sports. Waiting for something to happen today is a microcosm of baseball's next six months, after which something else much more important may or may not lie in store.
Any truths will reveal themselves over time, in accumulated individual outcomes and growing sample sizes of data and visual evidence. Bad teams will go on winning streaks, good teams will go on losing streaks.
And what is perhaps the most eagerly awaited Cubs campaign of our lifetimes is set to begin, carrying no promises -- merely the very active embrace of expectation that suffuses the action with extra energy and some fans with more of their unique mixture of hope and worry.
The long, slow walk begins. Later.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.