I was watching “Opening Day” at Yankee Stadium the other night when the oddity of opening day in late July and the fact that there were no fans in the stadium was obscured by a revelation.

For the first time in my memory, the Bleacher Creature Roll Call was not greeting the Yankees and their fans at the opening of a home game, much less opening day. Instead, a group of health care workers and first responders were called to “take their position” as if they were the ballplayers we idolized.

I was amused to see players from both squads salute these workers by banging the equivalent of pots and pans,  the tradition honor bestowed on these heroes every evening at 7 PM. (Of course, I presumed the “pots and pans” to be replicas of trash cans thereby mocking the Houston Astros and their methodology of cheating)

The only thing that made this moment less meaningful was the absence of fans to show their appreciation of our essential champions.

Nevertheless, those represented at Yankee Stadium as well as other essential workers have persevered to provide on a daily basis what users of Facebook and Twitter often fail to illustrate in their posts and tweets.

Making the world a better place is not as hard as you may think.

It only takes one less negative post or hateful tweet.

The power of scrolling enables us to ignore those items that offend us and, as the nuns of Blessed Sacrament and the Baltimore Catechism advised, avoid the near occasion of sin by showing our disdain to the offending poster/tweeter.

Make an effort in your own use of social media to avoid the near occasion of sin.

I am not always successful as I frequently “heart” the items that offend others and put my own two cents in to comment on somebody else’s post. I have to stop doing that.

Of course, I endeavor to be funny or at least ironic and don’t often spout hatred but being sarcastic never made the world a better place.

“Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

I often try to write with the thought in mind that my mother will be reading this.

If you had as loving a mother as I had, maybe keep her in mind when you put something out there on social media.

I am sure she would want you to make the world a better place.