One of those moments you take a step back, look around and realize how lucky you are. One of those moments you recognize that your hard work has paid off. One of those moments you feel so thankful for all of the people who believe in you.
Walking out onto the field on Opening Day in Detroit was that moment. Twenty minutes before the start of the game, I walked out of the tunnel behind home plate and made my way to the camera well to the left of the Red Sox dugout. That’s when it hit me.
I looked around to the crowd of 45,000 (highest turnout for Opening day at Comerica Park and second-most in the history of Tigers baseball) and just stopped. That was the moment; the one I will never forget.
The rest of the day went by in a flash — the pitchers’ duel of Jon Lester and Justin Verlander, a segment on David Ortiz and Mike Aviles, an interview with American Idol‘s Haley Reinhart, the Red Sox comeback in the ninth and the dramatic finish to the game.
Add in a postgame interview with Bobby Valentine, clubhouse interviews and filming a segment for NESN Daily with Nick Cafardo of The Boston Globe and just like that, Game 1 was in the books. My first Opening Day was over.
It’s important to remember to take time, stop and look around you. Freeze the moment. Use your eyes and your mind to take pictures — mental pictures.
Store those life photographs in your head and your heart. For those will last forever.
