Thursday will be one of those rare days when all things seem possible

It’s opening day for Major League Baseball.

That means fans of each of the 30 teams are looking ahead to the long schedule and are sure that, with the right break here or there, their team will have the chance to contend for a spot in the World Series. It’s that sense of optimism that makes the start of the baseball season such a special time.

There are some fans — and we use that term loosely — out there who don’t understand the magic of this week. They take the near-sighted view that Opening Day is nothing more than the first of 162 games each team will play this year during a grueling season that starts in the spring, will stretch through the summer and end in the fall.

Real lovers of the game, though, have been waiting for Thursday since Nov. 1, when the Texas Rangers defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 to capture the World Series title.

They are the people who enjoy the strategies and intricacies of the game, those who understand that the power of baseball can bring families, friends and neighbors together, whether it’s by sitting on a deck on a warm July evening listening to play-by-play on the radio or spending a day at the ballpark.

Time spent with baseball is a chance to share with children or grandchildren stories about having had the chance to see players with names like Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell and Bill Mazeroski play the game like it had never been played before while setting the standard at their positions that today’s players strive to reach. It’s an opportunity to remember watching games in Forbes Field and Three Rivers Stadium, and to share memories of the 1979 pennant run set to the tune of the Sister Sledge hit “We Are Family.”

Even with the recent changes designed to make the game move faster, the pace of baseball remains part of its magic.

It allows for conversation — actual conversation, not hastily typed text messages — and a chance to get away, if only for a few hours, from the ever-more hectic pace of modern life.

The wait for the season to begin for fans in the Tri-State Area ends Thursday, when the Pirates open at the Florida Marlins in a 4:10 p.m. start. The home-opener at PNC Park is scheduled for 4:12 p.m. April 5 against Baltimore. Cleveland, meanwhile, opens its season at 10:07 p.m. Thursday in Oakland, with its home-opener set for 5:10 p.m. April 8 against the White Sox. And, Cincinnati opens its season at home at 4:10 p.m. Thursday against Washington.

Baseball’s back beginning Thursday — we hope you will join us and sit back, relax and enjoy.