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Welcome to The Opener, where every weekday morning during the regular season you’ll get a fresh, topical story to start your day from one of SI.com’s MLB writers.
It happens some 270 times every day in Major League Baseball: The pitcher records the third out of the inning, and the catcher heads for his dugout. The broadcast cuts away. Fans stream toward the concourses. The moment is so unremarkable even close watchers of the sport probably could not describe the route every catcher takes.
