Mike McCann's Field of Fotos

Opening day, not opening night. Actually, if you grew up anywhere outside of Cincinnati and Washington, opening day was really the second day of the season. Now, between overseas openers (Australia this year, Japan, a few years ago) and the Sunday night ESPN opener, the unique, almost holiday feeling has been watered down. I know and accept that TV, especially network TV, pays a lot of the bills. But the nostalgia for an old-time opening day tugs at many of us lifelong fans. How many opening days (or nights) have you attended? Here's how it looked (from the upper deck) at Shea Stadium when the Mets and Expos -- in their very first game -- kicked it off in April 1969. Weather was typically early April: a sunny and cool start, before a front crossed the city, whipping up winds, some light rain and a sharp drop in temperature. It was also a time before massive video screens; music was Jane Jarvis at the Thomas organ. Mister Met was on the cover of your scorecard but had yet to beco...

The talent and confidence exuded during spring training by Masahiro Tanaka was, at times, striking. He capped it Friday night with 10 strikeouts in a six-inning outing against the Marlins. To no one's surprise, yesterday, he was named the James P Dawson Award winner for 2014. Named for a fabled New York Times sportswriter, it's voted by the local media corps to the most impressive rookie in Yankees camp. Such notable Yankees as Tony Kubek, Tom Tresh, Roy White, Willie Randolph, Don Mattingly and Jorge Posada have won it since the Dawson award was established in 1956. So did a first-year major leaguer named Hideki Matsui. But so have such forgotten flashes-in-the-pan as Johnny James, Gordon Windhorn, George Zeber, Mike Humphries and Eric Duncan. And some years, February and March performance isn't a measure of future greatness. Note how such beloved Bronx names as Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera, Bobby Murcer, Thurman Munson and Mel Stottlemyr...

The Tigers' Miguel Cabrera certainly belongs in the conversation over who is the best, or most feared player in baseball. Back-to-back MVP awards and three straight AL batting titles will do that. So will becoming the first player to win a Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski. In a game that pays its superstars well -- especially in a year it doubles its national TV revenues -- there's little surprise that salaries for for its top stars are rising. But there was a collective shock Friday when Cabrera, with two more guaranteed years left on his current contract, signed an extension that guarantees him at least $292 million for the next 10 years. Big money for your best talent? Of course. But to guarantee that kind of money when a player will be 40 just seems absurd. Pay him now, overpay him at 34? Expected. But at 38 and 40, when the aging process and normal wear-and-tear will render him far less productive? I don't see the logic for that -- no matter how good Cabrera is t...

Starling Marte is the latest of the Pirates' rising young stars to sign a lucrative long-term deal. Coming off his first full season in the majors where he batted .275 with a dozen homers and 41 stolen bases, he's part of a core that also includes Andrew McCutcheon, pitcher Charlie Morton and second baseman Neil Walker that helped the Pirates end two-decade-long absence from the playoffs. Are the Pirates doing it right, locking in their young players, even before they're eligible for arbitration, to long-term contracts? We'll see over the next few years. But with a sparkling ballpark and renewed regional interest in the team, ownership seems eager to avoid what happened in the early 1990s, when an exodus of talent turned the Pirates into one of the game's weaklings.

      If March 27th is your birthday, you're in very good company. You share the day with two of baseball's brightest young stars -- Mets ace Matt Harvey and Giants catcher Buster Posey. It took just a year-and-a-half for Harvey (left) to establish himself among the game's elite starters. Several times last season, en route to starting the All Star Game, he carried a no-hitter late into the game, as was the case on May 7th when he faced the White Sox. More than talent, fans and the media were taken by his brash attitude -- something the Mets have lacked. And while he'll miss most (probably, all) of 2014 rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, he's the biggest reason Mets fans have the sense that better days are ahead for the club. Posey (below) has already overcome a serious injury -- making it all the way back from a broken leg and torn ankle ligaments from a 2011 home plate collision with the Marlins' Scott Cousins. The next season, he led the NL in hit...

Back on March 3rd, when Joe Namath threw out the ceremonial first pitch, he also joined the pre-game meeting with the umpires and managers. There's Broadway Joe, in the number-12 he made famous as a Jet, alongside Joe Girardi (28) and across from Washington skipper Matt Williams (in the red uniform).

I saw a press release yesterday announcing that Joe Pepitone's life story will soon be made into a movie. To be honest, if you'd asked which 1960s baseball figure might make a good subject for a film, maybe you'd first think of Sandy Koufax, who dominated baseball for five years before a sore elbow forced his retirement at age 30. Perhaps the intimidating Bob Gibson, the heart and soul of three Cardinal pennant winners and two World Series champion, comes to mind. Or Tom Seaver, who changed the mindset and attitude of the Mets and in just his third season, let them to an improbable World Series title. But Pepitone, the Yankee bad boy, the party animal who never lived up to his promise? I have to admit I'm a little skeptical. Visions of a bad cross of Major League and  The Sopranos  come to mind. OK, I'm deeply skeptical. The film will be based on Pepitone's long out-of-print memoir, Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud, first published in 1975.