Batter up

Strike three! You're out! 

We'll soon hear umpires bawling those words again because, thank Heaven, the strike is over, the lockout is lifted, and baseball is coming back!

The major leagues will begin play on April 7. Fittingly, the Orioles have that day off, and will open their season with an away series against the Tampa Bay Rays on the 8th. Baltimore's home opener will be April 11 with the Milwaukee Brewers coming to town.

The teams will all be playing their full 162 game schedules, meaning that the games that were supposed to be played starting March 31 will be made up somehow.

And here is the best news! They are going to play real baseball again! Those silly rules from the last two seasons that meant extra-inning games started with a man on second base, and all doubleheaders were 7-inning games, are gone, relics of the two sad years of pandemic baseball.

That man-on-second rule reminds me of so many backyard ballgames we played as kids, with "an imaginary man" on third base because we only had like three guys on a team. It's hard to tell what an imaginary man might do while running the bases. For all I know, my imaginary guy fell down while cantering home!

And a 7-inning game throws off the game plan. It would be the fifth inning and you'd be thinking ahead to the 7th, 8th and 9th, and then remember "they ain't no 8th or 9th tonight!" It's like saying all football games in December will be 45 minutes because "it's chilly."

Going back to the real rules will make the games longer, some say.

"Whaddya, got somewhere to be?" I say!

And what's more, the Designated Hitter will now be universal, so the National League fans will be spared the sight of their pitchers waving fecklessly at other pitchers' pitches.

And Nelson Cruz will now be able to play until he reaches Social Security age.  And even then, he'll hit well for some team, if asked.