Opening Day is a minor holiday in many baseball cities, including St Louis.
It is the original Greenfield application: a fresh start, where hope springs eternal. No legacy baggage. No vendor or framework lock-in.
A true story: many years ago, I had taken a vacation day to go to see the Cardinals play their home opener. Due to an IT crisis, I was called in that morning for an emergency meeting for a valued, troubled customer.
After 1.5 hours, we had our plan. Upon leaving, someone pointed out that I was technically on vacation. I told the group that I didn't mind -- if they would do one favour.
I asked them to sing "Take Me Out to The Ball Game".
And in a dark conference room that had rarely, if ever, enjoyed the sound of music, they slowly, grudgingly started to sing. By the end of the first verse, they were into it, and beginning to smile. At the end, they were belting out the tune like school-children.
Here's to a new season....
Great story. Hope you don't mind if I blog about it as one of my Opening Day highlights. Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeletere: don't mind? Not at all... thanks for the note
ReplyDeleteBTW CBS Sunday Morning did a piece on the song this past Sunday (2008-03-30). I recall my wife talking about it, that it was one of the few songs all Americans knew. Edit my absolutes to suit yourself.
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