Today crept up on me.

As with everyone else, a lot of priorities have changed. When I sat down to punch through my weekly writers block, it dawned on me.

Today was supposed to be Opening Day.

After what seemed like the longest off-season in the history of baseball, I'm confident in assuming that most Astros fans were ready to be done with their Queen Cersei-esque walk of shame winter and get back to actual pitches and swings.

Today was supposed to be a fresh start. It's the one day where everyone's team still has a shot to go all the way. It's the day you call in from work, and the day kids play hooky from school.

The return of baseball for me is an annual return to balance. It's my springtime Christmas. It's a resumption of normalcy. A lot of people complain about the length of a baseball season. I am certainly not among them.

But today the gates will remain closed. The lights will stay off. The banners will remain veiled, and the wait will continue.

And it absolutely should. The heartbreaking part of all of this is that it is absolutely necessary. It's ironic how a situation can highlight how much sports are engrained into our culture, while simultaneously showing us how trivial sports can be in the bigger picture.

Baseball will be back. And when it is, we'll welcome it warmly. But in order to ensure that, we all have to be responsible, even if it's uncomfortable.