By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
It was Opening Day at the ball yard Tuesday.
Happy New Year, everyone.
Some people (OK, millions of people) look forward to New Year’s Eve and the Times Square ball drop at midnight. Baseball fans, on the other hand, cherish the real New Year’s Day, the day the home team takes to the diamond with hopes they never drop a ball.
For the Rochester Red Wings, that day was Tuesday. Welcome to summer, even though it’s only April.
“It’s hard to explain, but this is when your summer begins,” said Naomi Silver, the president and CEO of Rochester Community Baseball. “It’s a vibe that you can’t compare to anything else.”
Silver has a Google Cloud full of opening-day memories stored in her mind. Her father, Morrie Silver, led the charge to save professional baseball in Rochester with a public stock drive from the fall of 1956 to the winter of 1957, before she was born.
Over the years, she was raised on the Red Wings, eventually moving into the front office. She was overseeing operations for the team the next time baseball was saved in Rochester: On April 11, 1997, when the club left an old and outdated Silver Stadium for the splendor of Frontier Field.
“There was just an electricity in the air and in the community,” she said Tuesday evening, “because the community finally got that gem we deserved.”
A quarter century later, Frontier Field is still a gem, even as it ages gracefully. Is there a better place to spend a mid-week evening or mid-summer Saturday than under the lights and stars along Morrie Silver Way?
Everything just seems better at the ballpark. Sure, you can grill a Zweigle’s hot dog on your patio, but does it ever taste as good as one from the concession stand at Frontier Field? Of course not.
You’ve seen the twinkling lights on the Sweet Spot on the right field terrace a hundred times, maybe a thousand, and yet there’s still something magical about them that brings a smile.
And then there’s Fred Costello on the organ. This is Year 46 for the former touring nightclub performer. No one has ever played longer for a professional sports team. On the playing field or the organ.
“I’m doing it until I get it right,” he joked.
His first Red Wings’ Opening Day was 1977. He was new in town and, like any rookie, was battling a case of the nerves when he sat down among the fans at the Silver Stadium organ. In those days, the organ was positioned in the stands.
A light rain was falling that day and Wings general manager Don Labruzzo was worried about a postponement. He stopped by Costello’s perch before Opening Day festivities, fretting about the rain.
“Fred, we’ve got to get this game in,” he told Costello. “Do you know a short version of the anthem?”
“How can I ever forget that?” Costello said on Tuesday night.
No kidding. Like shaving 10 seconds off the national anthem was going to matter.
There were surely more lifetime memories made on Tuesday for some in the crowd of 8,170, even though the Wings lost 6-4 to the Buffalo Bisons.
That crowd, by the way, was the largest for a Wings game since 2019. There was no 2020 season; the COVID-19 pandemic put the kibosh on it. For most of last season, there were capacity limitations.
But with the sun shining all afternoon and baseball back, fans flocked to Frontier Field.
After all, who doesn’t like a good New Year’s celebration?
Great job Kevin!