Opening Day arrived in the SciFi & Fantasy League on April 21st, all twenty teams stepping onto freshly raked dirt with identical records and the particular variety of optimism that only a 0-0 standing can produce.
The league wire summed it up plainly: "It is a new season and a new beginning." That sentence, stripped of flourish, is correct. Every rotation looks sound before the first ball is thrown. Every lineup projects as dangerous. The Dyson Spheres and the Gallifrey Time Lords and the Forgotten Realms Kobolds each enter the day having lost exactly zero games. This outcome is temporary, but for now it is real.
Several storylines arrive with the opening pitch. Gwebrylla "Tempo" Eavesdropper of the Tatooine Sandcrawlers brings a 1,000-RBI and 1,000-run ledger into 2053 — both milestones crossed in 2052 — and sits 7 runs from passing Anton Valentin for 10th all-time. She enters the new year as one of the SciFi League's clearest standard-bearers. Gotrek "Daemonslayer" *Gurnisson of the Karak Kadrin Slayers is 5 home runs from passing Dora Tunnelly for 8th all-time in the all-time power rankings, having crossed 1,000 career RBI and 1,000 career runs in the previous campaign. The Karak Kadrin front office also acquired outfielder Surgab Demoncooties from the Andelain Giants in a minor-league deal completed before the first pitch, suggesting the Slayers consider themselves buyers from the outset.
Note: Berilac Holgate of the Land of Oz Munchkins enters the year one home run from 100 for his career — a threshold he could cross before the first week concludes.
The phrase "new beginning" is being used here in its literal sense. The games count now.