Finally it’s Opening Day and Our Time Begins …

Technically the season began when many of us were sleeping last week in Japan with the Mariners and Athletics. Wednesday night, MLB showed off Marlins Park by bringing in the defending champions. Thursday had seven match-ups, but today is finally the Royals opener in Los Angeles, which is one of the most anticipated seasons in KC franchise history.

For the most part, it has been since the close of the 2011 and the moves of the offseason that has many chomping at the bit. Add in the fact that ESPN will be showing the game to a national audience although that reason is most likely to show off the Angels free agent signings. For Royals fans though, 9 p.m. Friday is Our Time!

Bruce Chen will toe the rubber and lead Kansas City in game one of 162 games this season where hope reigns eternal. Having the team be relevant past the ASG is what we want as long suffering fans and this might finally be the season that we’ve got hope going into September…and dare I say, October.

Waiting for the late night opening pitch will be tough especially since most of the league will have played already. As colleagues on Kings of Kauffman have written, this feels a lot like Christmas Eve waiting to open your presents. The home opener will be similar. If your team opens on the road, it’s like getting two presents.

We can talk about how the team will do later and for the most part it’s how we’ve spent the offseason. Chen versus Jered Weaver looks like a mismatch on paper, but anything can happen between the lines on the first day.

One game won’t make your season, but with high expectations for once, the team with the youngest Opening Day roster just has me chomping at the bit. I don’t need to tell Royals fans that optimism has been lacking since 1985. We had a strike shortened season in 1994 and the 2003 season with a lot of losing bookending all of this.

Tonight at Angels Stadium is Opening Day in my mind because it’s when OUR Kansas City Royals take the field and begin the climb to make us proud. Find your blue, wear it proud, have friends over or go somewhere to watch the game tomorrow night because 2012 is OUR TIME and I’m beyond excited for tonight!

Stay current on all the Kings of Kauffman content and news by following us on Twitter, Facebook, or by way of our RSS feed and follow Mike Vamosi on Twitter to be notified each time he posts a story.