The first pitch of the 2002 baseball season is scheduled for 7:05 p.

Saturday, March 30, 2002

The first pitch of the 2002 baseball season is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. tonight in Anaheim, Calif. The Twins’ first game is Monday in Kansas City. Both of these events were in danger of never happening after an offseason of turbulence and uncertainty.

Contraction. Labor disputes. Lawsuits. Anti-trust hearings in Congress. A new Twins stadium. Until now, a baseball fan, or even a casual news observer, was more likely to hear about all that stuff than about what players to watch this year or what teams are the favorites in their divisions.

But starting at 7:05 tonight, all that is behind us.

The first pitch of the major-league baseball season will break the spell that has been cast over the sport. No longer will the talk be of contraction and labor negotiations, but of wins, losses, on-base percentages and all-star candidates.

Instead of owners stealing a team, we’ll be seeing players stealing bases. Lawyers making their pitch to a judge will be replaced by hurlers making a 3-2 pitch with two outs and the bases loaded. Instead of wondering about the very future of the Twins, fans can look ahead just long enough to size up the team’s next road trip.

It isn’t that all those off-the-field distractions will go away. The league’s owners are still threatening to contract; the players and their bosses still haven’t agreed on a new contract; the Twins still don’t have a stadium plan in place to replace the Metrodome and save the team.

But for fans who would rather watch a pitcher escape a jam with a nifty 6-4-3 double play than worry about revenue sharing and stadium bills, the start of big-league games will be a relief.

And for the first time in a decade, fans of the Twins can go into a season with some realistic hope. After a breakout season last year in which the team started hot then fizzled in the second half – finally finishing 85-77, good enough for second place in the American League Central Division – the Twins are considered playoff contenders again.

Are they World Series contenders? With the likes of the Yankees, Mariners, Red Sox and A’s in the American League, even a devoted fan must have doubts. But it’s March 31, and on March 31, every fan of every team can have hope.

If nothing else, this season is one in which we have a renewed sense that anything can happen. The Yankees enter as the favorite – what’s new? – but the Bronx Bombers were proven to be beatable in last year’s World Series. If we needed further evidence that anything can happen, we have the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. And despite a baseball system that heavily favors the haves over the have-nots, poorer teams like the Twins, A’s, Angels, Phillies and Padres go into the season with a good chance to contend. It has been a while since so many &uot;small-market&uot; teams had a legitimate shot at the postseason.

I, for one, will be rooting for the Twins for many reasons. The most obvious is that I always have and always will. But this year goes beyond that. After an offseason in which they were nearly killed by a hostile league that values money over tradition, the Twins have the chance to shove it back in their faces. Think the small-market Twins can’t compete? The team has the chance to prove otherwise.

I hope they do it. And I hope they find a way to ensure that us fans will be seeing a Twins opening day for many years to come.

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Dylan Belden is the Tribune’s managing editor.