Opening Day

Opening Day is the day on which professional baseball leagues begin their regular season. For Major League Baseball and most of the minor leagues, this day typically falls during the first week of April. For baseball fans, Opening Day serves as a symbol of rebirth; writer Thomas Boswell once penned a book titled, Why Time Begins on Opening Day. Many feel that the occasion represents a newness or a chance to forget last season, in that all 30 of the major league clubs and their millions of fans begin with 0–0 records.

Opening Day festivities extend throughout the sport of baseball, to hundreds of Minor League Baseball franchises as well as to college, high school, youth league fields and in areas far beyond North America. Since Major League Baseball generally starts their season first among professional leagues, their Opening Day is the one most commonly recognized by the general public. Most of the minor leagues start a few days later, but within the same week; the short season Class A and Rookie leagues are exceptions, since they begin play in June. (College, high school and youth baseball seasons vary widely depending on location and weather conditions.) Opening Day ignores the exhibition games played during spring training in the month leading up to Opening Day.

Volcano Bay

Volcano Bay is an upcoming water park to be constructed as part of the Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida. Volcano Bay will replace Wet 'n Wild as Universal Orlando's water park, and it will be the first constructed by Universal Orlando itself. The park, themed around a central volcano, is scheduled to open in 2017.

History

In February 2015, Universal Orlando Resort officials submitted plans for a new water park attraction to be located on their property near the Cabana Bay Beach Resort. Construction was already underway when Universal Orlando officially announced the project, and its name, on May 28, 2015. In June 2015, it was revealed that the park would replace the Universal-owned Wet 'n Wild water park, which is set to close in December 2016.

Volcano Bay is being constructed on approximately 53 acres (21 ha) of the resort complex's overall property. Artist's concepts show a thrill slide coming from the park's central volcano, as well as a wave pool and other water slides. A lazy river and rapids slide are also shown on the plans, although park officials have stated they will reveal all of the park's planned attractions at a later date.

Rhett Akins

Thomas Rhett Akins, Sr. (born October 13, 1969) is an American singer and songwriter. Signed to Decca Records between 1994 and 1997, he released two albums for that label (1995's A Thousand Memories and 1996's Somebody New), followed by 1998's What Livin's All About on MCA Nashville. Friday Night in Dixie was released in 2002 on Audium Entertainment. Overall, Akins's albums have accounted for fourteen singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs, including the number one "Don't Get Me Started" from 1996.

Although he has not charted a single since 2006, Akins has written singles for other country music singers, primarily as one-third of the songwriting team The Peach Pickers alongside Dallas Davidson and Ben Hayslip. Akins' son, Thomas Rhett, is also a country singer.

Biography

Early life

Rhett Akins was born on October 13, 1969, in Valdosta, Georgia. By age eleven, he and his two younger brothers had formed a band. Rhett attended University of Georgia and studied business but gave up his studies after a year. He then worked for his father’s oil and gas distribution company.

Dallas Davidson

Dallas Davidson is an American country music singer and songwriter.

Career

Davidson moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 2004 and joined Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) for performing rights representation and signed a publishing deal with Big Borassa Music, which lasted until 2008. Davidson signed with EMI Music Publishing Nashville in 2008 and extended his contract with them in 2012.

Trace Adkins recorded Davidson's "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" shortly after Davidson arrived in Music City, taking the song to number 2 on the country charts in early 2006. Davidson co-wrote the Brad Paisley-Keith Urban duet "Start a Band," which reached number 1 in early 2009. This song earned Davidson an award from BMI. He also co-wrote Billy Currington's "That's How Country Boys Roll," which went to number 1 in 2010.

Other singles that Davidson co-wrote in the late 2000s include "Put a Girl in It" by Brooks & Dunn, "Barefoot and Crazy" by Jack Ingram and "Gimmie That Girl" by Joe Nichols, all collaborations with Rhett Akins and Ben Hayslip, also known as The Peach Pickers. "Gimmie That Girl" made it to number 1 on the charts in April 2010.

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league. A total of 30 teams now play in two divisions, the American League (AL) and National League (NL), with 15 teams in each. The AL and NL operated as separate legal entities from 1901 and 1876 respectively, until 2000, when they were merged into a single organization known as Major League Baseball. After cooperating but remaining legally separate entities since 1903, in 2000 the leagues merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball. The organization also oversees minor league baseball leagues, which comprise about 240 teams affiliated with the major-league clubs. With the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB manages the international World Baseball Classic tournament.

Baseball's first professional team was founded in Cincinnati in 1869. The first few decades of professional baseball were characterized by rivalries between leagues and by players who often jumped from one team or league to another. The period before 1920 in baseball was known as the dead-ball era; players rarely hit home runs during this time. Baseball survived a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series, which came to be known as the Black Sox Scandal. The sport rose in popularity in the 1920s, and survived potential downturns during the Great Depression and World War II. Shortly after the war, baseball's color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson.