award winning journalists new york times bestsellers no topic out of bounds no opinions left unsaid an institution for sports talk and information this is the sports reporters here's mike lupica mitch album and bob ryan i'm mitch album of the detroit free press i am Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe and ESPN.

I am Mike Lupica, MLB.com, and the New York Daily News.

And if you're wondering why, after having known each other for as long as we have,

we still have a way of cracking each other up before a podcast and shows start

and Mr. Album, who is a professional broadcaster, professional.

Just had, Mitch, would you say just a little trouble counting down three to one?

Well, I forgot what came after two.

That was the problem.

I am broadcasting from Haiti, and I have a Haitian producer sitting next to me.

He's in a French culture.

It should have been two-un.

Yeah, yeah. There you go. Well, welcome to opening day of the baseball season. And even though we had a baseball season in 2020, a shortened baseball season,

nothing about the start of the season last July felt the way opening day is supposed to feel. And there will be fans in the stands.

It will differ from ballpark to ballpark across the country. We will talk about that in the

President of the United States. But after everything that has happened over the last year in

sports, at least today, a pageant of American sporting life that is as old as

sports in this country resumes at places all over the country. And I just finished writing a column for MLB.com

saying for Mets fans, guys, opening day came a night early because it was announced that they had locked up

Frankie Lindor with a 10-year contract that's the third biggest contract in the history

of the sport.

I think this is leading us into what's going to be one of the, maybe the number one

storyline, at least of my interest this year, which is the Battle of New York.

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