Apr 2, 2016 6 min read

What good is opening day if you can’t skip school to go to it?

Opening the season on a Sunday is a new thing for the Pirates and, based on the weather forecast, they probably should be playing the Cardinals at Heinz Field. The last I heard, they were talking about wind chills in the 20s.

There was a time when Major League Baseball teams showed a little consideration for their fans by waiting until at least the middle of April before opening the season. That didn’t guarantee a perfect day for baseball but it increased the chances greatly.

And, since the opener is scheduled for today, the traditional off day doesn’t work as well because fans who bought tickets might be working Monday if the game needs rescheduled.

But hey, I remember when Super Bowls weren’t played in cold weather cities in February.

I remember skipping a day in sixth grade to go to my first home opener, and it wouldn’t be the only time I played hooky to see the Pirates that season.

In October, Dave Lagi and I went to his house for lunch and didn’t come back. We stayed and watched the Pirates play the Yankees in the World Series.

Yep, April 14, 1960, was my first opening day.

I remember it being a picture-perfect day, and I remember feeling like I was breaking the law when two of the older kids who worked at the local pizza shop picked me and my friend up early that morning.

The Pirates beat the Reds, 13-0.

Bill Mazeroski hit a home run and drove in four. Roberto Clemente was 3-for-3 with five RBI. Vernon Law got the shutout on a seven-hitter with no walks.

The only detail of the game that I remembered without the help of the Internet was the home run by Maz. I’m probably one of only a few people left who remember he hit the Pirates’ first home run on his first at-bat and their last home run on his last at-bat that season.

The last one was pretty big.

• Have you noticed the NHL season is pretty long?

Now that the Penguins are looking like at least the second-best team in the Eastern Conference, Sidney Crosby has re-established himself as the best player in the world and Phil Kessel looks like a world-class goal scorer, does all that panic and hysteria of the first three months of the season look a little ridiculous?

Maybe we all forgot to take into account this was a different team with a lot of changes made since last season. And maybe we forgot a lot of the changes made in the last two months included players who had little or no NHL experience. In the 5-0 win over the Islanders Saturday, the game-winner was rookie Oskar Sunqvist’s first NHL goal and the shutout was the first for another rookie, Matt Murray.

Have you noticed the Penguins have not just been winning a lot but they’ve been beating the better teams and scoring a lot of goals?

They’ve scored five goals in each of their last three games. This is 2016. That’s not supposed to happen in the NHL. Prior to that mini-streak, they won two out of three when they put a seven spot on the Red Wings and six on the Captials.

Before starting April with the 5-0 win in Brooklyn, the Penguins won nine out of 10 in March and outscored their opponents, 41-22.

And did I mention that they did all of that without Evgeni Malkin?

Maybe you remember lots of people saying the Penguins would have a tough time making the playoffs with him out until at least the first round.

So, how are they doing it?

Speed and not playing not to lose.

The Penguins are supposed to look the way they’ve looked the last month. They come at opponents in waves, and they are playing a north-south game and shooting the puck.

Do you remember in 2009 when the Penguins fired their coach and brought their top minor league coach up from Wilkes-Barre to replace him? Dan Bylsma has a really nice ring to help him remember.

Bylsma turned the Penguins loose and dared teams to stop them.

That’s what Mike Sullivan has done since taking over for Mike Johnston in December.

It’s beginning to look like this Penguins’ postseason might be pretty long, too.

John Steigerwald writes a Sunday sports column for the Observer-Reporter.