No sport defines the calendar like the major league baseball season.  For generations fans have known the season starts in early spring and ends with the falling leaves in October.  There’s a comfort to realizing big league baseball season has pretty much been this way forever and some of the game’s great traditions like opening day are ageless.

The Twins and all major league teams begin play next week.  The charm of opening day ranks with baseball’s most special events like spring training, the All-Star game and World Series.  Opening day, though, comes to every major league town every year and that makes it unique among baseball’s great moments.

The Twins’ season and home opener is Monday at the Metrodome against the Los Angeles Angels.  This is the earliest home opener in Twins’ history and matches the March 31 road opener at Detroit in 2003.

Here are a dozen things to love about opening day:

Trivia talk: Stump your friends if you know stuff like this will be the Twins’ first opener ever against the Angels.  The most starts by a Twins’ opening day pitcher? Brad Radke with eight openers.

Build up: Anticipation for the opener builds like a kid waiting for Santa Claus.   By the late innings you may be disappointed with the score, but it sure was fun looking forward to the opening game.

Truancy:  Go ahead and admit it.  As a kid you skipped school and later as an adult blew off work to watch the opening game.  Keep the excuses to yourself. 

Newcomers: There are new faces to be seen at each opener.  Curious Twins fans look forward to evaluating center fielder Carlos Gomez, left fielder Delmon Young, third baseman Mike Lamb, shortstop Adam Everett, second baseman Brendan Harris and pitchers Livan Hernandez and Nick Blackburn.

Worth the adulation: Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer, Justin Morneau and Joe Nathan are admirable heroes on and off the field.  And with their long term contracts you can cheer them in the new ballpark.

Cynicism proof:  Even the skeptical media and your grouchy friends are carried away by the jubilation of opening day.  Okay, maybe a couple of negative types hold out, but not many more than on Christmas.

Openers past and future: Go ahead and day dream about 2010 in the new ballpark.  If you’re old enough, recall the 1962 home opener when snow surrounded the outfield fence and less than 15,000 showed up on a chilly April day at Met Stadium.

Burst into song:  Singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh inning is just like belting out “Happy Birthday to You” at a party.  Everybody joins in and nobody cares if you sound like a sick cow.

Storytelling: Former Twins’ radio announcer Halsey Hall once set the press box on fire with his cigar ashes.  Willie Mays came through here in 1951 and was hitting .477 before the New York Giants called him up to the big leagues.  Go ahead and tell a few baseball stories of your own.

Argue and debate:  It’s great fun to argue and debate about baseball players and issues while driving to and from the game, and while watching the opener.  Just to get things rolling, argue with a buddy about where the Twins will finish, the starting pitching, whether Mauer should move from catcher to another position and the impact of steroids on baseball.

People watching: Count how many celebs you see on opening day that are AWOL the balance of the season.  Go easy on them, though.  Opening day is special and it’s even for casual fans.

Real bats: On a lot of baseball diamonds you have to put with the gawd awful sound of the ball making contact with an aluminum bat.  Not in the majors, the bats are wooden and the tradition continues.

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The Gophers hope to continue their momentum when they play Boston College on Saturday starting at 6:30 p.m. Minneapolis time in a NCAA Northeast Regional game in Worcester, Massachusetts.

The Gophers are 7-3-2 since February 22 when they were in ninth place in the WCHA and a poor bet to make the NCAA tournament.  Coach Don Lucia’s team closed the regular season with a 3-1-2 record to finish seventh in the league. The Gophers then won a three-game playoff series involving three overtime games at Minnesota State, and last week won twice at the WCHA Final Five to reach the title game and earn an NCAA appearance.

The past two weeks have been among the most dramatic in Minnesota history as the Gophers have played seven straight one-goal games for the first time ever.  Also, neither Minnesota nor its opponents have had more than a one-goal advantage during the Gophers’ six postseason games.

Overtimes have been the norm for the Gophers, who have played an NCAA single-season record 16 overtime games. Minnesota also has a national-high and school record-tying nine ties.

The Gophers, who have played 35 games decided by two goals or less, have a 19-16-9 record and will play Boston College, 21-11-8, for the first time this season.  The Eagles were in Minnesota for two tournaments earlier this season but didn’t play the Gophers who also were participating.

Boston College was the NCAA champion runner-up the last two years and has the nation’s leading scorer in junior forward Nathan Gerbe, who has 28 goals and 29 assists for 57 points.  Joe Whitney ranks second nationally with 39 assists and second in scoring among defensemen.

Like Minnesota, the Eagles feature a freshman goaltender in John Muse, who has played every minute this season with a 2.26 goals against average and .919 save percentage. The Eagles have won five straight games and won the Hockey East tournament last week as the fourth seed, beating No. 1 seed New Hampshire 5-4 in triple overtime in the semifinals and Vermont 4-0 in the finals.

Gopher freshman goalie Alex Kangas was named the MVP of the WCHA Final Five.  In six postseason games he has a 1.21 goals against average and .959 save percentage.  Kangas has started 20 straight games with 1.64 goals against average and .940 save percentage. He has a 8-6-6 record during that period.

The winner of the Minnesota-Boston College game advances to Sunday’s regional final against either Miami or Air Force.  The Gopher game Saturday will be televised live by FSN North and Sunday’s championship game is on ESPNU.

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In its baseball issue Sports Illustrated picks the Twins to finish last in the five-team Central Division.  The predicted order of finish:  Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Kansas City and the Twins.  The magazine said new outfielder Delmon Young, 22, “might be the game’s finest young position player.”

City council president Barbara Johnson told Sports Headliners that Minneapolis is seeking $62 million from the state to pay off the debt on Target Center.  She also said the city has interest in using tax increment financing to pay for $70 million in renovations.

Because of the Republican convention coming here this summer there will be a need for about 3,500 police officers, Johnson said.  Minneapolis has a force of about 800 and St. Paul has approximately 500, so police from surrounding areas will help fill the manpower need.

Former Gopher tennis coach Jerry Noyce has met New York Giants Super Bowl champion quarterback Eli Manning because both are members of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.  Noyce said Manning has impressed him as a quality individual.  Noyce, Manning and others on the council are helping promote a new initiative by George Bush, the President’s Challenge.  The challenge began last week and encourages Americans to exercise 30 minutes a day, five days per week for six weeks. More information on the challenge is available at www.presidentschallenge.org.

Gopher associate athletic director Marc Ryan said that among the schools being considered for future football opponents are Texas, Pittsburgh and Navy.

Gopher football coach Tim Brewster, whose team began spring practice yesterday, said it was “nothing short of extraordinary” that his staff signed 31 of 45 players who visited campus during the last recruiting season.

Reserve quarterback Tony Mortensen, a backup for three seasons, came to Brewster during the off-season and said he wants to help the team as a long snapper, too.  Brewster said that kind of team attitude is going to “take us a long way.”

The Minnesota Thunder is practicing indoors in preparation for its April 29 regular season opening game at Portland.  The team will travel to North Carolina next month to play exhibition games. Coach Amos Magee said he’s hoping for a winning start to the season because past Thunder teams have started slow.

The Thunder held a party for sponsors and other boosters earlier this week.  The theme was a new vision and start for the team.  The franchise has new ownership that took over last year.  The Thunder unveiled a new logo at the party and an ad campaign starts April 15.

St. Thomas sophomore goalie Lauren Bradel and Gustavus senior forward Stefanie Ubl are two of 18 players honored as 2008 RBK Hockey Division III Women’s All-Americans. The two MIAC stars are part of the six-player West Region All-America team selected by the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA).

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