Well, Spring Training has come and gone and tonight- of all nights- the Cubs began the defense of their World Series title. Tonight is not especially a special date or time, and maybe that is why it is remarkable. Game one of 2017 kind of snuck up on me. And game one is in the books.

Gone is team leader, Lester catcher, and good sport geezer David Ross. Gone is “You go, we go” Dexter Fowler, who took his high on base percentage on down to division and league rival St. Louis. Gone are a handful of other key pieces from the 2016 World Champion team: Jason Hammel, Jorge Soler, Aroldis Chapman, among others.

Most of the 2016 team is back- and still hungry, and still young. 4 of the 5 starters remain the same, and most likely pretty good still. The Cubs infield remains über young, but with hitting power. The Cubs added a few new arms in the bullpen, notably closer Wade Davis who was lights out for a few years with the Royals, and reliever Koji Uehara, who came over from Boston.

The Cubs played their archrival St. Louis tonight on prime time to open the MLB season, and it was a great game. Down 3-0 in the ninth, Wilson Contrares hit a game-tying three run home run. In this case, St. Louis’ Grichuk single-handedly demanded that St’ Louis get the win with his bat. His single in the bottom of the 9th with bases loaded gave the Cards the W to start the season, and stamped the Cubs’ schedule with an L over game one.

I’m not expecting the season to go like that most of the time. But it remains to see how much the team will miss Fowler at the top of the order, and Rossy’s affable leadership. Will Bryant continue to hit home runs at a strident pace this year? Will Rizzo add to his power? Will Contrares, or Baez, or Russell, since they all can take the ball out easily? Will Jason Heyward finally find his bat?

We still have 161 games to go to find out.

Let’s go, Cubs!