It has been five long months since that 12-6 hook from Adam Wainwright sent 56,000 of us slinking towards the Shea Stadium exits, and left millions more hunched over on their sofas and barstools in disbelief. Five long months of ho-hum hot stove league and meaningless spring training games.

These last few weeks of camp have been a blur, one day running into the next with little to distinguish each game from the last. In a lot of ways, it doesn't even feel like the regular season begins tonight, though the newspapers and TV listings indicate otherwise.

Fans of thirty teams have been champing at their respective bits for a long time, but only those of the Mets and Cardinals will get things rolling tonight. It's not without a little disappointment that this season's inaugural game will be broadcast by ESPN and its legion of replaceable sportscasters, but I take solace in the fact that it is a real game, that the starting eight will play from beginning to end, and that I can count on not seeing Jon Adkins pitch no matter what the score is.

Six hours or so to go, Tom Glavine, Chris Carpenter, Mets, Cardinals, another opening day, maybe the start of something big.

Some opening day linkage:

• At MetsBlog, D.J. Short gets a series preview from SBNation's own Larry Borowsky.
• According to the THT Staff, the Mets are the consensus wild card winner in the National League. The good folks pick the Phillies to finish first and the Braves to wind up third, though the Mets are the consensus National League champs.
• Were the Cards on PEDs last postseason? Greg Prince thinks it foolish to ignore the possibility.