Opening Day Magic
Baseball is officially back today. Hoorah! Hope springs eternal for baseball fans everywhere.
If you’re heading to a ballpark or catching a game on TV, maybe you’ll see one of these beauties: a Mickey Mouse All-Star statue.
As you may recall, Major League Baseball partnered with the Walt Disney Company back in 2010 to create thirty six Mickey Mouse statues as part of the All Star Game festivities in Anaheim. Each Mickey statue stood 7 1/2 feet tall and weighed just under 1000 pounds. Thirty of the statues depicted specific MLB teams. The remaining six designs highlighted the American League, the National League and the All-Star game itself. The statues were placed throughout Southern California to promote the game and present the ultimate “hidden Mickey” challenge. The first person to snap a photo of all 36 statues won free tickets to the game.
After the All Star game, many of the statues were auctioned for charity. Today, you will mostly find them in ballparks and museums. You may also see them on random balconies, like this one viewed from my hotel room in downtown Buffalo. I’m not sure what Mickey Mouse is doing there, but it made me smile.
Baseball in general makes me smile. It’s not hard to find the magic in it, even without the giant Mickey statues. You can find it in the player making his MLB-debut after years in the minors. You’ll see it in the veteran pitcher who throws a no-hitter when the critics no longer thought he could. Maybe it’s in the expression of the ecstatic fan catching a foul ball or the unexpected player delivering the walk-off hit. In a game full of waiting and split-second plays, magic abounds.
Life can be like that too. There’s a lot of waiting between the action. There can be a lot of prepping for a moment that may or may not come. Sometimes the game takes longer than we think it should or the outcome is not what we desired. Other times, however, we surprise ourselves by rising to the challenge and beating the odds. We find magic where we least expect it.
Before I get too philosophical, let me share a little gem from 1943 to get your baseball season started right. The photo above is a screenshot and a link to Disney’s How to Play Baseball starring Goofy. I hope it serves as a friendly reminder to enjoy the game, whatever the outcome, and to find humor along the way.
Add a little opening day magic to your world.
