Many Pirates – finally – enjoying 1st ‘normal’ Opening Day

Imagine if during the Pittsburgh Pirates’ home opener in 2019, someone would have told the gathered 37,336 fans that it would be three years before there would be another full-capacity, unrestricted Opening Day at PNC Park.

It probably would have sounded like a bad April Fool’s joke.

Imagine if on April 1, 2019, during an 11-inning loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, someone had said the next season opener would be played in front of zero fans, or that the one after would feature tarps on many outfield seats and the fans who did arrive would be wearing surgical masks or other face coverings.

On Tuesday, the Pirates finally were able to have something akin to a “normal” home opener again.

“I mean, it’s going to be a lot of fun,” star outfielder Bryan Reynolds said during batting practice about three hours before the 4:12 p.m. Tuesday first pitch against the Chicago Cubs. “I’ve never had an Opening Day here. So I am excited. I think the fans are gonna show up, and they are gonna get loud. So that’s going to be fun.”

Reynolds and Ke’Bryan Hayes had yet to play a pro game above the Double-A level the most recent time PNC Park was unencumbered for a home opener. Derek Shelton was the Minnesota Twins bench coach.

Clint Hurdle was still the Pirates manager, Chris Archer the staff “ace,” Josh Bell the cleanup hitter and Francisco Cervelli the fan favorite.

Of the 21 players who got into the 2019 home Opening Day for the Pirates, none are still with the team. Such long-forgotten names as Melky Cabrera, Francisco Liriano and Keone Kela played that day.

Even the most diehard Pirates fans on hand that day never had heard of the likes Diego Castillo or Yoshi Tsutsugo or Chris Stratton — who are in the lineup and/or expected to play Tuesday — and few could have imagined the likes of Hayes and Reynolds would be such critical parts of the team the next time something close to a full house on Opening Day convened.

“It’s exciting,” Shelton said. “To be outside and see people walking around … you know your fans are going to be back. It’s like, we are slowly ticking back to what is normal, and I think this was the expectation I know I personally had in December of ’19 when I took the job. This is the expectation I had then, so our group is really excited.

“We have a young group, so you see some wide eyes. You see some things like, ‘(Dang), I have never seen this before.’ That’s cool, that enthusiasm, that excitement.”

Of the 28 players on the active roster Tuesday, just 11 had made their debut in the majors — for any team — on Opening Day 2019.

“This is a very exciting day for all of us,” Hayes said, “the whole team, staff, to get back out there in front of the home crowd and bring home that ‘W’ today.”

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