Tomorrow will be the final day of Designated Writers for me and JJ. It’s been a fun run and we thank you for your support.

Also tomorrow is April Fools’ Day, so we are just joking. See how much everybody hates April Fools’ Day, even when it’s just April Fools’ Day Eve? Me too!

Because it gives us an excuse to talk to you and other friends, Designated Writers it too much fun for us fun to quit. Despite the technological challenges. Despite the time it takes each night. Despite Sunday being April Fools’ Day.

If I were in charge of the calendar, April Fools’ Day and Easter could never be on the same day. Doesn’t seem right.

Am I wrong?

“Honey, we’re an hour late for church!”

“For EASTER SERVICE?! I’m sorry! Oh no! I guess I read the clock wrong and…”

“April Fools’!”

If something like that happens, Sunday School is not going to go as well as hoped.

If we have bought into April Fools’ Day as a legitimate holiday, P.T. Barnum was right: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

Of all the holidays, April Fools’ must be the biggest reach. St. Patrick’s Day has an actual beginning, and it has to do with a nice and good man. Groundhog’s Day: a cute animal, a photo op. I get it.

April Fools’ is to holidays what Bert Convy was to acting. You don’t know who Bert Convy was? Perfect.

I actually liked Bert Convy, host of both the forgettable Tattletales, which I never really got, and Win, Lose or Draw, which I never really liked. But Bert was cool because he seemed to never take himself too seriously. He probably enjoyed April Fools’ Day.

Whoever casted (cast?) him in the movie “Semi-Tough” back in the ’80s was brilliant. Whoever casted/cast the whole movie was brilliant because the roles and characters—Burt Reynolds as Billy Clyde, Kris Kristofferson as Shake Tiller and Jill Clayburgh as Barbara Jean—were dead on. The problem was that the movie was hardly like the best-selling book at all. Oops.

Convy was perfect in the role of the self-absorbed mentor, which I think was what a lot of us thought about him but was not what he was in real life. He was just a well-liked dude happy to be making a living.

Joke’s on us. April Fools’!

-30-

You know what I was thinking while I was watching baseball’s Opening Day? I was thinking about how much I love baseball’s Opening Day.

No sport has a beginning of its season like baseball. The introduction of the entire roster. The ceremonial first pitch. A stadium packed with fans thinking there’s a chance, if things go juuuust right, that their team could actually go 162-0.

I like Opening Day (there’s another reason … it has capital letters) so much that I would even watch a Milwaukee-San Diego. Oh wait … I did. Sure, anybody can watch the Cubs or the Yankees or the Dodgers,  I’m right there with the Brewers-Padres. And did I mention it went 12 innings? And that they didn’t even have to out a runner on second base to speed the game up? (That issue is for another day).

The Cubs’ Ian Happ hit the first pitch of the season out of the park. The Red Sox blew a 4-0 lead and the new manager is already on the hot seat. The Braves had their biggest comeback on Opening Day since 1900. Somebody you’ve never heard of for the White Sox hit three home runs, putting him on pace to hit 486 for the season. The Astros’ George Springer hit a leadoff home run for the second straight Opening Day. Giancarlo Stanton hit two home runs, apparently clinching the pennant for the Yankees, if you go by the post-game accounts.

All of that on one day. Maybe that kind of stuff can also happen on July 18 when nobody is looking. But it happened on Opening Day and everyone notices. Now it’s time to settle in for the next 161 games.

I’m happy to be along for the ride.