Openers and Closers

[DOUGHBOYS]

We all love being pampered. On birthdays, Fathers Day, and some other days during the year, we get to feel a little 'special' for a short time.
Celebrities get to feel this way all the time.
Our President can go to foreign countries with people like us protesting against him, but have the 'people who count' make him feel like royalty... (in his mind, only natural)
Actors and athletes can go to small towns and be the lead story on the evening news.
These actors and athletes have jobs that we desire. Short on the hours, very long on the pay.
I think that is why we revere them so much.

Not only do they enjoy few hours and maximum pay, they also have folks doing the hard parts of their job for them.
Look at actors.
'Action heroes' have stunt men to do their hard work.
Don't like the venue? Have the stand-in come in and do the job for the night.
Need a few days off? They'll film 'around you'.

Athletes have it even better.
A football game lasts over three hours. A football player only plays defense or offense. Three hours cut to one and a half. Bake in breaks like half-time, time outs, ends of each quarter, and time between plays, a football player is only on the field for half an hour. Times that by 16 and a football player puts in eight hours of work for his season.
We just did that yesterday!

Now, please, don't text or email me saying how wrong I am. I am being a little facetious with this line of thought.
But it does lead me to this....
An 'Opener' for baseball pitchers?
Talk Show hosts, comedians, and others have had 'Openers' for years.
Folks that would warm up an audience for the Main Show.
Who knew that a baseball game needed a 'warm up act' ?

It wasn't enough that starting pitchers only 'worked' every fifth or sixth day?
Somebody to warm up the crowd was needed before going on?
The 'Real' Star pitchers do not adhere to Openers.
They want to go out to the field in the first inning to maximum applause.
Pitchers like Scherzer, Verlander, and Bumgarner scoff at the thought of an Opener. They know that they are stars and do not want to share the stage with any pitcher (except a Closer who has to 'Save' their games (I bet they hate that term too))
Nope, the Opener is for pitchers like Ryan Yarbrough, Jose LeClerc, and other wannabe stars.

It makes me wish I had an Opener.
When I was a kid, an Opener could have eaten the vegetables off my plate.
He could have gone to my first class while I grabbed another hour of sleep.
He could have gone on those awkward first dates with girls.

They say that more runs are scored in the first inning than any other inning. This is because a teams best hitters always hit in the first inning.
The Opener has the hard part.
Maybe the worst job in baseball.
He never gets high pay in relation to his teammates.
He has the hardest job.
And unlike the pitcher that follows him, he knows that he has to work more than once a week.
His teammate, however, 'the Closer' has the best job in baseball.
They even made up a statistic for him. The Save.
That's right, he gets to 'Save' games.
He is like the fire fighter of baseball. A profession that is respected by all.
Enhanced by announcers saying, "They put out fires".
Closers, so highly respected that they can earn more than most teammates.
They are the opposite of the Opener in that they have more money and more respect. Stars in their own right.
And get this, while his teammates have worked nine innings to his one inning to win a game, HE is the one that gets most of the attention!

Unlike Openers, we mere mortals do not want a Closer in our lives.
Can you imagine cleaning our plates and having the Closer eat our dessert?
Or having multi-dates with a girl only to have the Closer 'seal the deal' for us?
The Closer does this on baseball teams. It is the Closer who is on the field for victory cheers from the crowd.
Not Scherzer, Verlander, or Bumgarner who toiled the first eight innings to bring them to that point.
The Closer comes in to steal their dessert and their worse, their 'climax' from them.