Opening Day is one of the best days of the year for baseball fans. The optimism of a new season and clean slate abounds. The only way that the day is made better is when your team wins, or even better, when your team wins on Opening Day with late-in-the-game heroics. Jim Thome provided that dream situation for White Sox fans, hitting a home run in the eighth inning to put the Sox over the Royals, 4-2.

The rest of the game was not so dreamlike. Mark Buehrle only pitched five innings, giving up six hits in that time. Carlos Quentin and Alexei Ramirez had a total of zero hits. The team also needs to not get in the habit of relying on home runs from the 39-year-old Thome, who has experienced a steady decline in his home run production since he hit his career-high 52 in 2002. The theory behind grinder baseball does not rely on home runs.

But that is a problem for tomorrow. It is dangerous to rely on home runs for offensive production, but for one game, one glorious Opening Day game, that home run was like manna from heaven. Thome has been a hero for the White Sox before, and today's game reminded White Sox fans that he still has it in him. That's not a bad way to start a season.