For baseball fans, there's nothing like opening day

The New York Yankees opened their 2017 season Sunday losing 7-3 to the Tampa Bay Rays. Today, the Mets host the Atlanta Braves followed by the Phillies opening their season in Cincinnati.

This season will be very special for me and my 10-year-old sons Lennon and Albert since this will be the year they attend their first major league games. Do you remember the first time you went to the ballpark to see your team play?

For me, I was in seventh grade and it was the Yankees vs. the Detroit tigers at Yankee Stadium. I had seen the "House that Ruth built" so many times on television but I'll never forget the first time I saw it in person. There are so many unique things about being at the ballpark: the smells, the ramps leading to the seats, mixing in with thousands of baseball fans mostly wearing team swag.

What stuck out the most for me were the colors. Living in Union City we didn't have much grass, let alone the green well-manicured infield and outfield with the cutting strokes cris-crossing the outfield. Though I watched the games at home in color, they were never so bright as when I saw them live.

I went with my Dad on a Friday night and I'll never forget the Yankee lineup: Danny Cater, Horace Clarke, Gene "The Stick" Michael, Roy White, Bobby Murcer, Jerry Kenny, Stan Bahnsen pitching the Yankees to a 4-1 win. I didn't know it then, but it was an experience I would never forget. This year, my sons will get that experience as well as several other kids across the country. I can't wait for them to see a live game!

You never forget your first game and for me, being there with my father made me feel like a grownup. Sports is the great equalizer between fathers and sons. It's the one thing that they can talk about on equal footing with each having their own opinion on a the team and it's players.

The next baseball game my father and I would attend was almost 20 years later when I took him and his brother Andy who was dying of cancer to Veterans Stadium to see the Mets and the Phils. These two old brothers were like kids watching the game and walking through the ballpark. It would be the last game that they would ever see together.

My father died in 2015 at the age of 92. Each year around this time when he would come over, we'd talk about opening day and the game we went to together and the one we went to with Uncle Andy. That's how long these memories last and those memories are what I look forward to giving my sons this year. Batter up!

Steve Trevelise is on the air from Monday-Thursday, 7 to 11 p.m. Tweet him @realstevetrev or @nj1015.

For baseball fans, there’s nothing like opening day