Baseball (and some normalcy?) is back

Columnist Jason Winders experienced both the pandemic awkwardness and the beauty of Opening Night at Labatt Park …

Josh Williams helped the London Majors start their season off with a bang by hitting a two-run homer during the team’s lopsided 12-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs July 9 at Labatt Park. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

It was weird. But it was still baseball.

A pandemic restrictions capacity crowd of 1,100 fans saw the London Majors drub the Toronto Maple Leafs, 12-1, Friday night for the Majors’ Intercounty Baseball League (IBL) season opener at Labatt Park. It had been 696 days since the last official game played between the white lines in the Forest City.

Masked up. Spaced apart. Sanitized all over. Be it over the PA, or from simply looking around, there were plenty of reminders that we are still dealing with a global pandemic.

Honestly, I am still amazed it happened. It took a Herculean effort by City and team staff to make this work – the first major live event in London emerging from the pandemic. What an accomplishment.

It was also perfect for our first night out together – cold weather, sloppy play, and plenty of awkward moments and interactions.

Sure, the team opted to pump up the crowd by introducing the starting lineup to Coldplay’s mournful Fix You, which matched the moment as well as if Francis Ford Coppola dumped Ride of the Valkyries and scored the Apocalypse Now helicopter scene with Ray Stevens’ The Streak.

And yes, the pre-game ceremonies dropped an immediate damper on the crowd’s nervous energy. You would be hard-pressed to find any other opening day festivities in baseball history that featured two moments of silence – one for an ongoing global pandemic, one for a genocide endorsed by government and church.

After the emotional wringing out of those moments, politicians took the microphone. To the crowd’s credit, a hawk landing on its nest atop a light standard drew louder applause than the mayor and council members (at least some things are normal). No offense to city leaders, of course, but sometimes we just need to take a break from the real world and watch a little baseball.

Like I said, it was weird. But it was baseball.

The sentimentality of the moment was a little overwrought, but who among us knows what to say anymore? We’re all going to have more of these awkward re-emergence interactions in our future, so let’s forgive the awkwardness in each other, enjoy the moments together, and hope they aren’t accompanied by Coldplay.

Emerging for the first time into public, I had nerves. Never a fan of pre-pandemic crowds, I moved around a bit at first until I found a corner to tuck into, away from the antsy back-and-forth foot traffic that baseball seems to engender. I looked over my shoulder. Was annoyed by anyone who brushed by too closely or decided to sit directly behind me. I even found myself mumbling about people being idiots.

I admit to judging, weighing if I thought people nearby were vaccinated or were taking some sort of silly stand against subterranean gnomes using vaccines to deliver mind-control microchips into the population.

I tried to remind myself to chill. We’re all figuring out how to get back out there.

Carlos Arteaga dives back to first base on a cool night at Labatt Park July 9 — the first IBL game at the historic ballpark in nearly 700 days. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

But let’s not fool ourselves. Things looked great this time last year, then fall came, businesses opened, the university turned into a hot zone worthy of a Wolfgang Petersen flick, another wave rose, schools shut down, and the wheels fell off. People got sick. People died.

We’re in a far better place these days with vaccinations increasing. But there’s no time to let our guard down.

The pandemic is still happening. Life returned to abnormal the moment the crowd stepped outside the stadium gates.

But it was so nice to be inside them for a few hours. I know, it's hard not to be romantic about baseball. There just seemed to be a glimmer of hope Friday night.

It was weird. But it was still baseball.

Same beautiful ballpark. Same clanky sound system. Same prison bus bleachers. Same Cleveland Brownlee batting cleanup (Brownlee has played in London for so long he took his first at-bats off Tecumseh). How much do I love the sound of a ball on bat, a ball striking a leather glove?

There is that perfect moment during Labatt Park night games when the setting sun casts an orange glow on downtown buildings standing over the outfield wall. That moment made a spectacular appearance Friday night after days of rain.

There were times during the night when I forgot about what I should be doing and just enjoyed what I was doing. I cannot say that is a luxury many of us have had during the last year-plus.

It was all there Friday night. All the same things we left behind 696 days ago.

It was weird. But it was baseball, damnit.

Welcome back.

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CIRCLING THE BASES

Owen Boon got the win on Opening Night in the Majors 12-1 victory, allowing just an unearned run on four hits over six innings (103 pitches). He struck out three … Braeden Ferrington tossed three scoreless in relief … After notching three runs in both the third and fourth innings, the Majors put the game out of reach with six runs in the sixth … Shortstop Keith Kandel had three of the London lineup’s 10 RBIs … Julian Johnson, a newcomer to the Majors this season, drove in a pair of runs with a double. London’s only other extra base hit was a home run off the bat of first baseman Josh Williams … The blowout victory allowed the Majors to get 14 different players into the game … The Majors travel to Welland Saturday (July 10) before returning home Sunday (July 11) for a game against the six-time defending IBL champion Barrie Baycats at 7:35pm at Labatt Park. Attendance for that game will also be capped at 1,100. Fans can also catch the game via livestream broadcast on YouTube.