Opening Day: A Time of Fresh Starts and New Beginnings
When hearing the New York Yankees had their home opener against the Toronto Blue Jays postponed on Monday, all thanks to the heavens opening up and washing away their final opening day at 161st St & River Ave, their 84th, my mind raced back to another Yankee opener postponed due to inclement weather.
The year was 1996. And it wasn’t in the Bronx. It was in Cleveland against the Indians. And the opener wasn’t rained out; Jacobs Field was blanketed with 4 inches of fresh snow on April 1, 1996, causing a postponement to be made up the following day, when David Cone silenced the Tribe in a 7-1 win on a chilly afternoon.
The Yankees opener in 1996 has a special significance for me when I was living in Cleveland; not only did I see Derek Jeter penciled in the Yankees lineup for the first time, a game which saw the 21 year-old rookie shortstop deposit his first career home-run in only his second at bat; it also marked the beginning of ending my cigarette habit for good.
For sometime, I had been preparing to kick the habit, but never settled on a magical quit day. I tried a number of times without much success. I was a chain-smoker, two-packs a day; my life was consumed with coffee, cigarettes and reading newspapers.
But as opening day quickly approached, I thought to myself what better day to quit the cigarettes than on Opening Day, the day, at least in baseball folklore, that has come to symbolize a day of fresh starts and new beginnings.
Who knew what kind of year the Yankees were going to have. After all, they had a new manager, Joe Torre, with a bumpy managerial track record, who was saddled with a team consisting of Andy Fox, Jim Leyritz, Charlie Hayes, Pat Kelly, and Gerald Williams. Not exactly Murderer’s Row.
But as you know, the season turned out magnificently for the pinstripes, they won their first World Series in 16 years. Jeter, the new matinee idol (and his measly $130,000 salary) was named Rookie-of- the-Year, Bernie Williams and Tino Martinez had monster years, while Mariano Rivera and John Wetteland were the best one-two punch in baseball.
And I kicked the habit for good. I never went back, though I still get a little weak-kneed when I catch a whiff of nicotine wafting through the air.
When I woke up on that cold snowy April morning in 1996, ready and determined to quit the cigarettes; only to learn the opener was snowed-out; I thought for a moment of postponing my quit day for yet another day, but I was so single-minded to quit, I plunged ahead (opener or no opener) without a cigarette; and never smoked again. That was 12 years ago.
I merely point out this time of my life to give encouragement to those who are thinking of quitting cigarettes; but are waiting for the right moment; the right day; and the right reason to extinguish the nicotine habit from their life
I quit cigarettes in 1996; a year later, I lost my sister, Patty, to lung cancer at age 47. Despite trying time and time again to quit, and despite having few flaws in life, except a deadly cigarette habit, she never was strong enough to quit. I was just one of the lucky ones. According to the American Cancer Society, only about 3 percent of the current smoking population or 1.3 million successfully quit smoking each year.
After losing her, My mom, her daughter Brittany, my sisters Ellen, Katie, and Betty, my niece Dawn and newphews Michael and Chris were deprived of her sharp wit, sage advice, immeasurable hours of laughter, and most importantly, her love. Thankfully, the memories of Patty and what she meant to our family are still very much alive, and haven't been washed away like the Yankees opener yesterday.
It would be splendid if someone reading this would encourage others to pick Opening Day as a time to quit smoking for good. But an even better reason for talking someone into giving up the habit is to prevent them from having their life cut short, like my sister Patty.
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net
The year was 1996. And it wasn’t in the Bronx. It was in Cleveland against the Indians. And the opener wasn’t rained out; Jacobs Field was blanketed with 4 inches of fresh snow on April 1, 1996, causing a postponement to be made up the following day, when David Cone silenced the Tribe in a 7-1 win on a chilly afternoon.
The Yankees opener in 1996 has a special significance for me when I was living in Cleveland; not only did I see Derek Jeter penciled in the Yankees lineup for the first time, a game which saw the 21 year-old rookie shortstop deposit his first career home-run in only his second at bat; it also marked the beginning of ending my cigarette habit for good.
For sometime, I had been preparing to kick the habit, but never settled on a magical quit day. I tried a number of times without much success. I was a chain-smoker, two-packs a day; my life was consumed with coffee, cigarettes and reading newspapers.
But as opening day quickly approached, I thought to myself what better day to quit the cigarettes than on Opening Day, the day, at least in baseball folklore, that has come to symbolize a day of fresh starts and new beginnings.
Who knew what kind of year the Yankees were going to have. After all, they had a new manager, Joe Torre, with a bumpy managerial track record, who was saddled with a team consisting of Andy Fox, Jim Leyritz, Charlie Hayes, Pat Kelly, and Gerald Williams. Not exactly Murderer’s Row.
But as you know, the season turned out magnificently for the pinstripes, they won their first World Series in 16 years. Jeter, the new matinee idol (and his measly $130,000 salary) was named Rookie-of- the-Year, Bernie Williams and Tino Martinez had monster years, while Mariano Rivera and John Wetteland were the best one-two punch in baseball.
And I kicked the habit for good. I never went back, though I still get a little weak-kneed when I catch a whiff of nicotine wafting through the air.
When I woke up on that cold snowy April morning in 1996, ready and determined to quit the cigarettes; only to learn the opener was snowed-out; I thought for a moment of postponing my quit day for yet another day, but I was so single-minded to quit, I plunged ahead (opener or no opener) without a cigarette; and never smoked again. That was 12 years ago.
I merely point out this time of my life to give encouragement to those who are thinking of quitting cigarettes; but are waiting for the right moment; the right day; and the right reason to extinguish the nicotine habit from their life
I quit cigarettes in 1996; a year later, I lost my sister, Patty, to lung cancer at age 47. Despite trying time and time again to quit, and despite having few flaws in life, except a deadly cigarette habit, she never was strong enough to quit. I was just one of the lucky ones. According to the American Cancer Society, only about 3 percent of the current smoking population or 1.3 million successfully quit smoking each year.
After losing her, My mom, her daughter Brittany, my sisters Ellen, Katie, and Betty, my niece Dawn and newphews Michael and Chris were deprived of her sharp wit, sage advice, immeasurable hours of laughter, and most importantly, her love. Thankfully, the memories of Patty and what she meant to our family are still very much alive, and haven't been washed away like the Yankees opener yesterday.
It would be splendid if someone reading this would encourage others to pick Opening Day as a time to quit smoking for good. But an even better reason for talking someone into giving up the habit is to prevent them from having their life cut short, like my sister Patty.
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net
A touching piece but it would work better if it was longer and you could tell us some good stories about your sister. And tighten the connection between quitting and opening day. The Jeter stuff is OK, but incidental. The moral is good. This could easily be a magazine piece.
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