Welcome back, fans! MLB openers bring Soto, Tatis and crowds

Grounds crew workers mow near the first-base foul line at T-Mobile Park, the home of the Seattle Mariners baseball team, Monday, March 22, 2021, in Seattle as photos in the stands demonstrate how fans attending reduced-capacity games will be separated into "seating pods" to avoid the spread of COVID-19. The Mariners are scheduled host the San Francisco Giants on April 1 in the Mariners' home-opener. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) Grounds crew workers mow near the first-base foul line at T-Mobile Park, the home of the Seattle Mariners baseball team, Monday, March 22, 2021, in Seattle as photos in the stands demonstrate how fans attending reduced-capacity games will be separated into "seating pods" to avoid the spread of COVID-19. The Mariners are scheduled host the San Francisco Giants on April 1 in the Mariners' home-opener. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

By BEN WALKER / The Associated Press March 31, 2021 6 min read

Great to see ya, Buster Posey. Been a while, Tony La Russa. Good luck, Madison Bumgarner and every other National League pitcher toting a bat.

From Comerica Park to Coors Field to the Coliseum, Major League Baseball is set to roll out a big welcome mat Thursday.

Most of all, this opening day, it’ll be for the fans.

When Gerrit Cole throws the first pitch of the season – weather permitting – nearly 11,000 people could be in the stands at Yankee Stadium. Sitting in socially distanced seats and wearing masks, inside a park that will continue to operate as a mass coronavirus vaccination site.

Far from normal. But after a year in which fans weren’t permitted at any regular-season game because of COVID-19 protocols, no longer will “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” strangely echo around empty ballparks during the seventh-inning stretch.