In which Brian tries to bring back one, if not two, habits? hobbies?

I fell out of love with baseball the past couple of years. The Covid lockdown happening right at the start of a season was the impetus for what had been waning interest on my end. Those games in 2020 were odd to watch, even if they were welcome artifacts of what was an increasingly less normal life.

I followed baseball the years since, but far less than I had for much of the last decade. Some of this was a splintering of my attention, and some of it was a general feeling that baseball made it hard to continue to love it, to the point where I wondered if the Commissioner, the major media stakeholders, and other prominent national voices actually enjoyed baseball.

I also quit Twitter somewhat serendipitously in February 2020, and that made it harder to be connected to the people and voices that kept me engaged. It felt like a smaller and smaller part of my life, even as the Mets were playing great last year, I didn’t really feel the pull to watch.

For whatever reason, this spring I got the itch again. Maybe it’s a sign that I’m starting to feel (at the risk of repeating a cliche) a new sense of normal post-2020, and I have enough of an idea of the things I actively want to be part of my life again rather than just taking whatever life brings my way. Opening Day is always exciting — it’s a sign that in the Northeast, we made it through winter.

This year, I feel a little out of the loop. I don’t quite know what I don’t know from very loosely paying attention these past few years, but I’m game to figure it out the next six to seven months. It feels new and novel and I’m ready for both of those things. I’m ready to ride the ups and downs of a baseball season, inevitably to have my heart broken again.

I will take your general baseball and Mets recommendations as well.

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