That was the question former Chicago Sun-Times baseball writer Joe Goddard would pose after the first pitch of the opening game of spring training every year, whether he was covering the Chicago White Sox in Sarasota, Fla., or the Chicago Cubs in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Goddard would shout it from his press box perch for dramatic effect, and like Jim Nabors singing “(Back Home Again in) Indiana” before the Indy 500, the annual rant to no one in particular became a tradition for Chicago writers, a signal the new season officially was underway.
How that tradition would play in the Zoom era is anyone’s guess, but with the Sox’s Cactus League opener limited to six innings Sunday because of COVID-19 protocols, the marathon season that never ends started off with a mini-game — and it felt just fine.