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Opening day showed me that I might have been looking at this entire Nolan Arenado situation through the wrong lens. It was easy to buy into the idea that his presence impeded the larger goal of the organization, to provide playing time for younger players. Then there’s the specter of a looming trade hanging over him and the club. It just seemed messy.

Just one game in, Arenado proved that him still being a Cardinal makes this season exponentially more interesting. Arenado, the recipient of the loudest pregame ovation of anyone not named Ozzie Smith or Tony La Russa, belted an eighth-inning home run Thursday that helped secure a two-run win on opening day at Busch Stadium.

“I wasn’t expecting boos or anything,� Arenado said. “I don’t know what I was expecting, to be honest. I honestly wasn’t expecting it to be that loud. So I think it kind of hit me a little bit. I was pretty pumped up about it.�

His dogged pursuit of a bounce-back season and the extra edge he brought into the season because feels he has something to prove, that’s a reality show worth watching. Then you add in the fact that Arenado potentially will write the final chapter of his tenure with the Cardinals this season, and it makes him the most interesting man in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ sports this summer.

If you doubt there’s any extra edge with Arenado after an offseason of trade speculation, a failed trade attempt and people wondering aloud if the Cardinals would be better off without Arenado, go argue with Cardinals manager Oli Marmol.

“You have one of the most competitive humans I’ve ever been around,� Marmol said after he flat-out laughed at the question of Arenado having an extra edge. “I would say so. Yeah.�

The day before the season started — a season that everyone expected would feature Arenado wearing a different uniform — the Cardinals third baseman stood in front of his locker in the Busch Stadium clubhouse and acknowledged that he had a chip on his shoulder.

It wasn’t the trade speculation or the perception that the Cardinals were destined for a down season. It was that folks were knocking him.

Arenado, a superstar in the game, recognized the murmurs about his declining play were getting louder. An increasing number of pundits, opinion makers and fans were prepared to put him out to pasture.

And yes, he heard it.

“I’ve read some things or seen the things on TV that people have said about me,� Arenado said Wednesday evening. “Of course, that always motivates you.�

Arenado, a likely future Hall of Famer with 10 Gold Gloves, eight All-Star selections and five Silver Slugger awards, hadn’t shied away from expressing his own disappointment with his performance over the past year. But the fact that many others were publicly doubting his ability, that stoked the fire for the soon-to-be 34-year-old.

So Arenado leaned into the moment on Thursday after his eighth-inning home run.

With the crowd still cheering and beckoning him, Arenado bounded up the dugout steps for his curtain call as if his legs were spring-loaded and he cupped his right hand to his ear and nodded his head to the crowd. He then tapped his fist over his heart before he darted back into the dugout.

His gesture combined attitude and gratitude as he reacted to a cheering crowd. The attitude reflecting just a hint of brashness and confidence — not animosity. And folks ate it up.

“It meant a lot to me today,� Arenado said. “I took it all in. I usually don’t, but today I did. The way they cheered for me, it meant a lot to me and got me motivated. I was just fortunate to give them something to cheer about also. I just want to thank them for that. It meant a lot to me and my family.�

Arenado’s solo home run gave the Cardinals a 5-3 advantage in the eighth inning with one of the game’s best closers — record-setting reliever Ryan Helsley — ready in the bullpen. It effectively shut the door on the Minnesota Twins’ rally after they’d trimmed a four-run deficit to a one-run deficit.

Arenado, who struggled to pull the ball the way he used to and maybe can’t catch up to the good fastball the way he once did, turned around a 98-mph fastball up and inside from Twins reliever Griffin Jax and shot it over the left field wall. It came off his bat with a 99.3-mph exit velocity.

Jax gave up just four home runs in 72 appearances last season. He struck out 95 batters in 71 innings and opponent slugged a paltry .281 against him for the season.

Still, Arenado turned on that four-seamer as if it were batting practice. Not bad for an old timer with a creaky body and more doubters than extra-base hits. (That’s sarcasm, but Arenado seems to use knocks against him as fuel so either way it works)

“Off of their guy to kind of take the air out of the other side is kind of what it felt like,� Cardinals starting pitcher Sonny Gray said of Arendo’s homer. “That was nice. From one run to two runs is huge, and then obviously doing it off of their guy — it was nice.�

The uncertainty remains the factor that makes the Arenado saga so compelling this season. He found a way to embrace it.

If that means he’ll do everything he can to make this a special season, then we should definitely lean into Arenado as the must-see element of the club this spring and summer.

“I don’t know,� Arenado said about why he took things in on Thursday, starting with the pregame ceremony and slow spin around the warning track of the stadium. “The uncertainty. You just think of — there’s different things going through your head, so you think of all the uncertainty.

“I was like I don’t know if this is going to be my last time. There’s so many things going through my head. I don’t know if it’s going to be, but in the moment all those things started crossing my head when I got in the car.�