Outside The Confines: Firsts of the year

What are the best moments from the 2023 Opening Day? For starters, Aaron Judge was naturally the first player to hit a home run this year. Adam Wainwright was an unexpected anthem singer, and Adley Rutschman went five-for-five.

And that’s not counting how the Blue Jays and Cardinals managed to score a collective 19 runs between them. Oh yeah, baby, baseball is back and it’s weird as ever.

Well, the Cubs currently have a perfect season, so let’s just enjoy that fact while we can and jump into the links of the day.

• Here’s that Wainwright anthem to start us off.

• This has the potential to be a huge story in coming weeks, as reports suggest that MLB and minor leaguers may have reached an agreement on the CBA. Report by Jeff Passan.
• Dan Szymborski gives us his 2023 ZiPS projections.
• Will Leitch brings us the top 11 Opening Day highlights.
• Stephen J. Nesbitt looks at how some very clever teachers are incorporating Opening Day into their classroom lessons. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Nick Selbe tracks how long every Opening Day game lasted with the new pitch clock.
• Shohei Ohtani called his own game. Story by Tim Keown.
• Meg Rowley collects the 2023 Fangraphs staff predictions.
• Ken Rosenthal has the top 10 stories in MLB this season. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Bryan Hoch gives us a little more on Aaron Judge’s first home run of the new year.
• Stephanie Apstein does a little focus on Judge and how this season could stack up for him.
• Esteban Rivera breaks down the best blockers in baseball.
• Eric Fisher looks at how the new rules are requiring some technological changes in ballparks.
• Jacob deGrom wasn’t thrilled with his first outing with the Rangers. Story by Jesse Rogers.
• Anthony Castrovince tries to determine how the new rules are impacting the game after only one day.
• Think baseball can’t improve space travel? Well you haven’t met NASA engineers, then. (NASA)
• Megan Thee Stallion might have been the best reason to watch an Astros game yesterday as she threw out the first pitch of the season. Story by Henry Palattella
• It’s always a good time to share baseball comics.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Make it so.