During the absence of baseball, I've found that I can't really lose myself in games that already happened, because I need to be surprised by a payoff that can only be generated by incredible athletes.
For at least one day, this video scratched my itch.
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Because days seem like weeks and weeks seem like years, it feels like the 2020's originally scheduled Opening Day came and went at some point in 2015. Rick Renteria never got a chance to name his starter, but I sure hope he'd've went with Lucas Giolito over Jeff Samardzija.
Warping the calendar further, today was supposed to be Opening Day for Minor League Baseball. The start of each season only used to be separated by a few days, but this year's schedule featured a fortnight-long gap thanks to the combination of the earliest-ever start for Major League Baseball and the second-latest Labor Day possible, which always marks the end of the minor league's regular season.
It's an especially big bummer in Kannapolis, which was set to usher in the Cannon Ballers era today in Charleston, S.C., and the downtown ballpark era a week from now.
As it stands, here's a quick look at how the full-season affiliates are making do:
Charlotte Knights
The Knights have been rolling out their all-decade team, and they'll be replaying some of their biggest rebuild-era moments on Facebook starting at noon ET today:
- Game 1: Lucas Giolito No-Hitter
- Game 2: Luis Robert's Knights Debut
- Game 3: The One the Knights Overcame a 7-Run Deficit to Win
Birmingham Barons
The Barons are taking advantage of complete minor-league rosters on MLB The Show 20, playing the Rocket City Trash Pandas on Twitch at 6 p.m. CT.
Winston-Salem Dash
The Dash aren't marking the occasion with any events, but they did remind me that they've redesigned their logo based on around the classic idea of interlocking letters, rather than the speeding, angry baseball.
Kannapolis Cannon Ballers
They have no such events planned, but the Salisbury Post in North Carolina got a look at Atrium Health Ballpark, and the Cannon Ballers recently showed the new view from behind home plate. While it doesn't quite match the spectacle of BB&T Ballpark's backdrop of downtown Charlotte, it's a major improvement over the old one.
