Today is Opening Day in Major League Baseball

If your response to "It's Opening Day" is "For what?," we can't be friends.

It is finally here. The smell of the hot dogs gently carried through the breeze blowing in from center field. The screaming of PEANUTS, POPCORN, ICE COLD BEER HERE! And that distinct CRACK the bat makes when the ball hits it in the sweet spot, echoing through the ballpark! The 2015 Major League Baseball season is here!

Last night, sadly the Cubs lost to the Cardinals at the home opener inside the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. Even so, I can almost close my eyes and go back to when I was a kid, watching WGN-TV, and hear Harry Carry in the seventh inning stretch stand up and proclaim... "LET ME HEAR YA... AH ONE, AH TWO, AH THREE.... Take me out to the ballgame!"

Yes I am a Cubs fan! It's odd living in Texas to be sure, and even though we lost the home opener to our oldest rival, the ball club from St Louis, it was nice to see the green grass, the white lines, and the bright lights of baseball once again.

While Abner Doubleday is commonly credited with inventing baseball, its evolution can be traced much further back to older bat-and-ball games. A manuscript from France written in 1344 has a picture of clerics playing a game called la soule that has great similarity to what we call baseball today.

Of course in Great Britain and Ireland, they play a game called rounders, which is also similar, but a little older that the aforementioned la soule.

The game originally was played in a triangular infield, instead of a diamond, and contained posts and not bases. The first recorded game of what we call baseball now was in 1755 on Easter Monday in Guilford, Surrey England.

The early form of the triangular version of the game was brought to North America by English Immigrants. It was referred to here in the states as "round ball" "town ball." It had many different rules than what we use today, such as five bases, or catching the ball on the first bounce when batted would be an out.

The age old theory that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1839 has been conclusively proved false by sports historians. He did, however, make the version we play today, with four bases instead of five, and a diamond instead of a triangle, the standard.

Baseball is much different today, and not nearly as violent. Did you know that  in early versions of the game, you were out if you were hit with the thrown ball? Underhand pitching was the only form of pitching allowed.

Thank goodness that no longer applies. Can you imagine the bench clearing brawls that would be in the game nowadays?

It only took 20 years for baseball to become the "national past time," and by 1876 the National League of Professional Baseball was formed from several other smaller leagues that didn't survive the early sea of baseball clubs around the New York City area.

Several other major leagues tried to form and failed in the early years. The first real rival to the National League, was the American Association, which is now an independent minor league not affiliated with the major leagues, and which also later became the now American League.

So now you know a little about baseball. Hopefully you aren't still saying "FOR WHAT?" No matter what your team is, rather or not you like the DH, or if you prefer mustard or ketchup on your ball park dog, we have 161 more games to take us through the summer.

Oh and did I mention ... GO CUBBIES!