Easter. Purim. Eid. Opening Day. Whatever, y’all, this a religious holiday for my husband and me.

Our first real date was to a baseball game. We got married at a baseball game. Our kid was dragged to many ballgames until he was old enough to cry uncle. We have been taking this day off from work and going to a game since we married. Usually the weather has been amenable. On maybe one occasion it was unbearably hot, but generally the unpleasantness goes the other way and we are miserably cold.

A bad day at the ballpark is better than good days in most other places. That said, you make your own luck.

We had tickets to opening day in St. Louis last year, but we forfeited them to go watch Indiana State come within inches of winning a basketball championship. It was the right decision: Not only was it a very exciting game and unlikely to happen again soon, but also the weather was positively VILE. 

We took that as a teachable moment, and decided that from here on, our religious observances will take place in warmer states or domes. So this year, we are in Arlington, watching the Rangers play the Red Sox. I have never been to Texas and am excited to learn their traditions. I feel like this is a much wiser tradition than going to the opera on my birthday, which we did for a while and also generally involved abysmal weather.

But—on an operatic note, so to speak—one thing the kid did get behind while he was still going to games was the related music. At one point we had a playlist: Take on Me, Sweet Caroline, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Centerfield.  We also had an album of baseball songs, one of which was about Braves catcher Biff Pocaroba, which our Back to the Future-loving kid misinterpreted and sang as “Biff poked a robot.”

Do you have a favorite team, song, ballpark? Tell me about it!