These Are the Good Old Days

With less than 24 hours to go before the Phillies' 2010 season begins, I wanted to put down some final thoughts. I've blogged plenty about day to day Phillies happenings, about the good and bad of individual players, and about a competition that captured the attention of the Phillies blogosphere. I'm new to the blogging business, but I do have the distinction of having lost that competition to the eventual overall champion, so I can rest on my laurels a bit for that.

Anyhow, here it is: the 2010 season. After questions asked were answered and questions asked remained unanswered, tomorrow is when it all starts to matter again. Forget those Grapefruit league batting averages, ERAs, and exciting walkoff wins over the Yankees. None of that matters as soon as Harry Leroy Halladay III throws out the first pitch tomorrow to Nyjer Morgan. I will be there to witness what will hopefully be a dazzling debut for Philadelphia's new ace.

People love to talk about the good old days of anything, whether it be politics, music, sports, or even the world in general. It is truly rare to be able to recognize the good old days as they are happening, in any of those areas of life. The current crop of Phillies is one such occasion, when we fans can say without a shadow of a doubt that these are the good old days.

On the eve of this 2010 season, I don't know what the future will bring for this team that has capture the hearts and minds of a city. I could make predictions for the coming season, as many have (incidentally, you should check out some of those predictions here and here, and also the always insightful Jayson Stark's take on the upcoming season). I could say that I think the Phillies will win the NL East, beat, say, the Cardinals in the NLDS then the Rockies in the NLCS, then beat the Red Sox in the World Series. That would be awesome if that came to pass.

In the end, I don't really know what will happen between now and October, so I'll sit back and enjoy the ride over the course of the next six, hopefully seven months.What I do know is that these are, truly, the good old days for Phillies fans everywhere. Now let's get out there and win some baseball!