It’s here. We made it. Baseball is back.

Opening Day is the first day of the rest of your life. We can finally stop staring out the window in anticipation of spring. It’s here.

Take the day off, put up your feet, grab a hotdog and enjoy. This is a holiday unlike any other. Umps will scream “play ball” and fighter jets will buzz stadiums full of elated fans. Gloves will pop. Bats will crack. That singing hotdog guy will annoy us.

In most cities the sun will shine brightly, in others, like Detroit, it will be cold and rainy. But it doesn’t matter. Our long, collective nightmare is over.

Baseball is back.

Mascots will race around the track and we’ll all wait for that first, get-out-of-your-seat moment when we all hold our breath. It’s coming.

On this day, everything is possible and no one is in last place. Everyone can have a career year and there is no yesterday about which to complain.

No more contract speculation or trade talk. No more rankings and previews or roster competitions. Just nine innings of baseball that counts.

Your team’s best pitcher against the other team’s leadoff guy is just hours away, maybe even minutes if you’re reading this late enough in the day.

You’ve made it, congratulations. Another awful, terrible, too long winter with nothing to care about.

But it’s all over now. Seven months of baseball begins today.

I don’t know about you, but for me, it’s about time.

Happy Opening Day, friends. I’ve missed you.