T102 Sports Now content editor Leroy Boyer, center, is flanked by his two sons, Tyler Boyer, left, and Austin Boyer, right, while attending a Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park in 2024

Phillies open season today against Texas Rangers

For me, today is a national holiday.

It’s Opening Day!

Every sports fan has those one or two special days of the year that they can’t wait for, that when they find out the date they make special plans and clear their schedule.

For some, it’s the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

For others, it’s the start of the NFL season.

Or maybe it’s the Penn State White Out game.

Or the NASCAR races at Pocono.

For me, it’s the start of the Major League Baseball season.

In particular, the Philadelphia Phillies’ home opener.

Today, my two sons, Tyler and Austin, and I will make our annual pilgrimage to Citizens Bank Park to watch the Phillies take on the Texas Rangers.

Over the past five years, Austin and I have made attending the Phillies’ home opener a great father-son tradition. This year we’re fortunate Tyler can join us.

What makes Opening Day so special is that today is the only day of the Major League Baseball season where every team takes the field with high hopes, with aspirations of reaching the playoffs, advancing to the World Series and winning the championship.

“This will be our year!” every baseball fan hopes.

Will this be the year for the Phillies? Let’s hope so.

The last time we saw the Phillies on the baseball diamond, they suffered a heartbreaking, season-ending defeat in the National League Division Series to the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

Orion Kerkering’s ill-advised, errant throw home with two outs in a tie game plated the winning run for the Dodgers and sent the Phillies home early for the second straight year.

Over the past four years the Phillies have been one of Major League Baseball’s most successful teams, reaching the playoffs all four seasons and winning back-to-back National League East crowns.

All four seasons, however, ended without the Phillies raising the World Series trophy and holding a parade down Broad Street.

In 2022 they lost in the World Series to the Houston Astros.

In 2023 they got knocked off by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS.

The past two seasons the Phillies were good enough to land a first-round bye only to lose in the NL divisional series to the New York Mets and L.A. Dodgers, respectively.

The common denominator in all four of those seasons was the Phillies’ inability to hit in the postseason. Will that change in 2026? We won’t truly know that until we get to October. The Phillies have to get to October first.

HYPE VIDEO: Get pumped up for today’s Philadelphia Phillies season opener here … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvfHhXtvbbQ

For the Phillies to reach the playoffs for the fifth straight season, they’ll have to answer some major questions over the course of 162 games:

• Can the Phillies’ all-star core of Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto and Trea Turner continue to hit at a high level? They’re not getting any younger.

• Can Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh and Bryson Stott step up their game?

• Can new right fielder Adolis Garcia be the masher he was in 2022 and 2023 for Texas?

• Is Justin Crawford ready for the major leagues? What kind of impact will he have as the Phillies’ everyday center fielder?

• Will Zack Wheeler be the Zack Wheeler of old when he returns in mid-May following thoracic outlet surgery?

• Is the rotation of Cristopher Sanchez, Aaron Nola, Jesus Luzardo, Taijuan Walker and Andrew Painter good enough?

• How good will the Phillies bullpen be with a full season of Jhoan Duran?

• Do the Phillies have enough depth, both in position players and pitching, to overcome the usual string of injuries that occur during the long, 162-game season?

• Will “running it back” one more time finally produce the championship the Phillies have gone without since 2008?

Over the next six months, we’ll learn the answers to those questions. With an impending work stoppage threatening the 2027 season, it might be now or never for this current group of Phillies.

Today, however, it’s time to celebrate.

Another Major League Baseball season is upon us.

Happy Opening Day!

Modern media still not as good as radio

The first pitch of the 2026 Major League Baseball season came Wednesday night when the New York Yankees visited the San Francisco Giants.

If you looked for the game on regular cable television and couldn’t find it, you weren’t alone. The game was exclusively televised on Netflix, another money grab by MLB putting baseball games on streaming services.

It tough to admit, but the way sports fans watch professional sports is changing. The rising cost of cable TV has allowed streaming services like Apple TV, Amazon Prime and Netflix to “steal” MLB and NFL games, thus taking them off cable and making them unavailable to those who don’t subscribe to those streaming services.

Personally, I grew up listening to Phillies games on WPPA 1360 AM radio on my grandmother’s little white box radio and still listen to games on the radio on a daily basis. I’ve often sat in my truck or drove around town just to listen to the end of an inning or the end of a Phillies game on the radio.

Radio is one of the few media productions that is live … everything else (TV, web, streaming, XM) is a 15- to 30-second delay, or more. Phillies’ play-by-play announcer Scott Franzke is one of the best in the business and is a joy to listen to.

WPPA will again be broadcasting every Phillies game of the 2026 season on both its 1360 AM and 105.9 FM channels. We couldn’t find the exact number of years, but it’s got to be 70 straight years, if not more. Thank you to the local sponsors who make it possible for that to happen. Make sure you support those businesses.

To listen to today’s Phillies game on WPPA, visit https://us7.maindigitalstream.com/5429/