Jackson Chourio adjusted his batting gloves as he walked toward the plate at Yankee Stadium. The 21-year-old Milwaukee Brewers left fielder shook hands with New York Yankees catcher Austin Wells, then he bent down and touched the dirt. He stepped his right foot into the batters’ box, and his left foot followed. He wiggled his bat and waited.
At 3:13 pm ET on Thursday, Chourio swung the first pitch of Opening Day. It was a 96-mph fastball for strike one from Yankees left-hander Carlos Rodón. A fastball and a slider later, Rodón had the day’s first strikeout. Wells hit the first home run a half-inning after that.
And suddenly baseball was back.
There was a late-inning rally in San Diego, a rain delay in St. Louis, and a seven-home-run slugfest in Toronto. A $765-million free agent singled in his first at-bat in New York, and a shortstop did some pitching in Chicago. In Los Angeles, one World Series hero threw a ceremonial first pitch to another. Kirk Gibson to Freddie Freeman. The legend of 1988 to the marvel of 2024. Ice Cube drove the World Series trophy onto the field at Dodger Stadium, and Shohei Ohtani homered in his fourth at-bat. The Dodgers held on to win by a run.
That’s what the baseball world had been waiting to see. Five months after the World Series, there were baseball games — meaningful, regular season games — being played from coast to coast.
Pittsburgh Pirates phenom Paul Skenes was good, but he wasn’t the best young pitcher of the day. Free agent prize Juan Soto got a hit in his first at-bat with the New York Mets, but he struck out in the ninth and the Mets lost by two. The Chicago White Sox, coming off the worst season in modern baseball history, won in a blowout to finish the day tied for first place. For that moment, they were as good as anyone, and Miguel Vargas was a .500 hitter.
It was Game 1 of 162. A drop in the bucket, but it quenches a winter’s thirst.
Opening Day, technically, was not the start of the baseball season. The Tokyo Series between the Dodgers and Chicago Cubs opened the regular season a week ago. Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga pitched well in an all-Japan Game 1 matchup. Ohtani homered in Game 2. Fanatics announced $40 million in merchandise sales. The Tokyo Series was a success and a spectacle, but it was also a one-off. It was global but not universal.
Opening Day is singular but communal. It’s a day for the dreamers and the believers, the first-time Major Leaguers and the veteran Corey Seagers. It’s a blank slate for the White Sox, a triumphant return for the Dodgers, a reset for the Philadelphia Phillies, and a fresh start for the Boston Red Sox.
And it’s the best day of the year for Tyler O’Neill, the Baltimore Orioles right fielder who homered for the sixth Opening Day in a row. The Cleveland Guardians have had a different Opening Day right fielder each of the past 14 seasons, while O’Neill just keeps going deep.
Baseball appreciates that kind of consistency. It’s a game of tradition and history. There’s bunting in the stands and giant American flags on the field. ESPN’s afternoon broadcast on Thursday opened with an ode to the late Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker, and the Toronto Blue Jays’ on-field ceremony celebrated the life of stolen base king Rickey Henderson. Trevor Hoffman, Andy Pettitte and Chris Sabo threw out ceremonial first pitches in San Diego, New York and Cincinnati. Ichiro Suzuki, the newly minted 51-year-old Hall of Famer, fired an 84-mph bullet of a first pitch that seemed too ferocious to be ceremonial. Josh Groban sang the National Anthem in L.A. (just like he did last year before the Dodgers won it all).
And tradition holds that there’s nothing better than a great starting pitcher.
Skenes, coming off his dominant Rookie of the Year season, struck out two in the first inning on Thursday. Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler had five strikeouts in the first two innings. Reds fireballer Hunter Greene had seven strikeouts through three. All were outdone by Washington Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore, who made his first Opening Day start and struck out 13. He and Hall of Famer Bob Gibson are the only pitchers ever to strike out that many without issuing a walk or a run in the first game of the season.
Not that it mattered in the end. The Phillies rallied in the seventh inning of that game, then blew a lead in the eighth, and finally beat the Nationals in the 10th. The Guardians also won in extra innings after blowing a save. Second-year Boston Red Sox right fielder Wilyer Abreu and veteran San Francisco Giants DH Wilmer Flores each hit three-run, tie-breaking, ninth-inning home runs. Gavin Sheets hit a pinch-hit, go-ahead home run in the seventh for the San Diego Padres. The Pirates and Miami Marlins — whose pitching matchup between Skenes and former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara was the most anticipated of the day — decided their game long after their aces had hit the showers. The Marlins, another of the worst teams in baseball last year, got a ninth-inning walk-off to win it.
The Orioles’ 12-2 blowout of the Toronto Blue Jays notwithstanding, it was an Opening Day of close ballgames (and of general managers wishing they’d done more to improve their bullpens).
There were two very different hold-your-breath moments (aside from a brief but frustrating MLB.TV streaming outage). The first was beyond baseball as the Blue Jays public address announcer, amid a tariff war, pleaded with Toronto fans to “be respectful” during the American national anthem. (There were some boos, but not like at other recent sporting events.) The second came when Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout was hit in the hand in his first plate appearance back from yet another season lost to injury. Trout stayed in the game to draw a walk later, a was a small silver lining (especially for a losing team that had infielder Nicky Lopez get its final out), but a hopeful one just the same.
Opening Day is built for that kind of glass-half-full optimism. It’s a day to think back with fondness and to hope with reckless abandon. The Houston Astros’ 34-year-old icon Jose Altuve played left field for the first time, and did it in the same game in which 22-year-old teammate Cam Smith made his big league debut and got his first hit. A career pivot for each of them, together, with all of us watching.
Tension and possibility. Winning and losing. Opening Day is Aaron Judge stepping to the plate, Elly De La Cruz getting a lead at first base, Tarik Skubal coming set on the mound, and Bobby Witt Jr. taking his first step toward a ground ball in the hole. It’s the thrill of anticipation. It’s baseball, at last.
And after the sun had long set on the East Coast, Thursday’s final West Coast games got underway in Arizona and Seattle. The Diamondbacks against the Cubs. The Mariners vs. the (not Oakland) A’s. Zac Gallen would be facing Kyle Tucker, and Logan Gilbert going against Lawrence Butler.
It was Opening Day, and in that moment, everything was remembered, and anything was possible.
(Top photo: Richard Rodriguez / Getty Images)
