Day on which professional baseball leagues begin their regular season
Opening Day
is the day on which professional
baseball
leagues begin their
regular season
. For
Major League Baseball
(MLB) and most of the American
minor leagues
, this day typically falls during the first week of April, although in recent years it has occasionally fallen in the last week of March. In
Nippon Professional Baseball
, this day typically falls during the last week of March.
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
.
[1]
Many feel that the occasion is a moment to forget last season, in that all teams begin anew with
0?0
records.
[1]
Pre-season
exhibition games
are usually played in the month before Opening Day, during
spring training
. A
home
opener is a team's first game of the season on their home field.
Equivalents to Opening Day occur throughout the sport, including minor leagues,
college baseball
, high school, and youth leagues. Because MLB generally begins its season earlier than the other professional baseball leagues, its Opening Day is the one most commonly recognized by the general public. Most minor leagues start a few days later, but within the same week; the
short season
Class A and Rookie leagues are exceptions, as they begin in June. College, high school and youth baseball seasons vary widely depending on location and weather conditions.
History
[
edit
]
For generations, Opening Day has arrived amid pageantry. In
Cincinnati
, home of the sport's
first openly all-professional team
, the annual
Findlay Market
Parade marks an official "city holiday" with young and old alike taking the day off to cheer on the
Reds
. For decades, the first pitch of every major league season officially took place in Cincinnati, and the Reds remain the only major league team to always open the season with a home game (the sole exceptions, since the beginning of the 20th century, being in 1966, when they started the season at Philadelphia after rain washed out the opening series in Cincinnati; 1990, when due to a
lockout
affecting the schedule they opened the season at Houston; and 2022, when another
lockout
led to their opening the season at Atlanta).
[2]
The
Chicago Cubs
have been the Reds' most frequent Opening Day opponent, visiting Cincinnati for 36 season openers, most recently in 2007. The
Pittsburgh Pirates
, against whom the current Reds organization played their first opener in 1882, are a close second with 32, most recently in 2023; no other team has more than 19 (by the
St. Louis Cardinals
, most recently in 2014), largely due to the Cubs and Pirates rotating as the Opening Day opponents from 1899 to 1916, then the two teams and the Cardinals rotated from 1917 to 1952.
[3]
Following the then-
Boston Braves
relocation to
Milwaukee
during the 1953 spring training, the Braves swapped schedules with the Pirates and the Opening Day opponent for the Reds began to be rotated amongst the rest of the
National League
.
[4]
Fittingly, the Reds were also the first team to host an
Interleague game
on Opening Day when the team hosted the
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
in the first year of year-round Interleague play in 2013.
[5]
Since 1994
ESPN
has often televised a regular-season game the night before "Opening Day" and recent years have seen the staging of season-opening series in
Mexico
,
Puerto Rico
, Japan, and Australia. While these are technically "opening games", Major League Baseball still reserves the title "Opening Day" for the first day in which multiple games are played. (For the first time ever, three televised games were played on Sunday, April 3, 2016, before the traditional "Opening Day" slate of games on Monday, April 4.)
[6]
[7]
[8]
Opening Day is a state of mind as well, with countless baseball fans known to recognize this unofficial holiday as a good reason to call in sick at work or be
truant
from school (as most teams typically play their home opener on a weekday afternoon) and go out to the ballpark for the first of 162 regular season games. Teams' home openers serve as the only regular season games during the year in which the entire rosters of both teams as well as coaches and clubhouse staff are introduced to the crowd prior to the games; for the rest of the year, ballparks only introduce the starting lineups and the teams'
managers
. Some teams, among them the
New York Mets
, have had their broadcasters as the master of pre-game ceremonies for their home openers, which also typically feature appearances by retired players, local celebrities or media personalities, politicians, and other dignitaries.
Prior to Opening Day, the teams' managers have to decide the starting
pitchers
for the game, an assignment typically given to the
ace
of each team's staff.
[9]
For a pitcher to start on Opening Day is considered an honor, regardless of whether they are on the home or visiting team.
[10]
Hall of Fame pitcher
Early Wynn
, who played for the
Washington Senators
,
Cleveland Indians
and
Chicago White Sox
, once said: "An opener is not like any other game. There's that little extra excitement, a faster beating of the heart. You have that anxiety to get off to a good start, for yourself and for the team. You know that when you win the first one, you can't lose 'em all."
[1]
In 2014,
Ozzie Smith
, with the support of
Anheuser-Busch
, began a campaign using the
We the People
site on
WhiteHouse.gov
to petition the U.S. government to make Opening Day an official
national holiday
.
[11]
[12]
Memorable moments
[
edit
]
In 1907, the
New York Giants
forfeited their game at the
Polo Grounds
to the
Philadelphia Phillies
, 9?0, after rowdy fans made and threw snowballs. Without police available to restore order, umpire
Bill Klem
awarded the game to the Phillies.
[13]
In 1940,
Cleveland Indians
pitcher
Bob Feller
threw a
no-hitter
to open the season against the
Chicago White Sox
. It remains the only no-hitter in Opening Day history.
[14]
Twelve
U.S. Presidents
have thrown the
ceremonial first pitch
of the season. On April 14, 1910, baseball enthusiast
William Howard Taft
attended the
Washington Senators
' home opener at
National Park
, becoming the first U.S. President to open the season in this manner.
[15]
Harry S. Truman
threw first pitches with both his right and left arm in 1950.
[1]
On April 4, 1994,
Bill Clinton
inaugurated the
Cleveland Indians
' new ballpark, then known as Jacobs Field and now as
Progressive Field
, with the first pitch.
[16]
George W. Bush
did the honors to inaugurate
Nationals Park
for the
Washington Nationals
on March 30, 2008.
[17]
Ted Williams
was a .449
hitter
in openers, with three
home runs
and fourteen
runs batted in
during fourteen such games and at least one hit in each game.
[18]
On April 4, 1974,
Hank Aaron
of the
Atlanta Braves
hit his 714th career home run on Opening Day at Cincinnati's
Riverfront Stadium
, tying
Babe Ruth
on Major League Baseball's all-time list.
[1]
Aaron finished his career with 755 home runs.
In 14 season openers for the
Washington Senators
,
Walter Johnson
pitched a record nine shutouts. Two of his more famous starts include a 3?0 victory over the
Philadelphia Athletics
in 1910 and a 1?0 marathon victory while battling the A's
Eddie Rommel
for 15 innings.
On March 29, 2018,
Matt Davidson
of the
Chicago White Sox
hit three home runs in his team's opener against the
Kansas City Royals
at Kansas City's
Kauffman Stadium
. He became the fourth major leaguer with three home runs on Opening Day, following the
Toronto Blue Jays
'
George Bell
in 1988,
Chicago Cubs
'
Tuffy Rhodes
in 1994 and the
Detroit Tigers
'
Dmitri Young
in 2005.
The
St. Louis Cardinals
were the first major league team to open their home season with a
night game
, beating the
Pittsburgh Pirates
4?2 at
Sportsman's Park
on April 18, 1950.
[19]
The first
interleague
Opening Day game was played between the
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
(AL) and the
Cincinnati Reds
(NL) on April 1, 2013 at Cincinnati's
Great American Ball Park
. The Angels won the game in 13 innings, 3?1.
[20]
The longest Opening Day game in major league history was played on April 5, 2012 between the
Cleveland Indians
and
Toronto Blue Jays
. The game, played at Cleveland's
Progressive Field
, ended with the Blue Jays beating the Indians, 7?4, in 16 innings.
[21]
The previous record for longest Opening Day game was on April 19, 1960, at
Cleveland Stadium
. That game, lasting 15 innings, also saw the Indians in a losing effort, 4?2, versus the
Detroit Tigers
. The
Philadelphia Athletics
and
Washington Senators
also played a 15-inning season opener on April 13, 1926, with Washington winning, 1?0, at home.
On rare occasions, predominantly in the early 20th century, a team would open its home season with a
doubleheader
. The first of these came when the
Boston Americans
hosted the
Philadelphia Athletics
for two games on April 20, 1903, with Boston winning the first game, 9?4, and Philadelphia taking the second game, 10?7.
[22]
The most recent Opening Day doubleheader in the major leagues came on April 7, 1971, with the
Chicago White Sox
defeating the host
Oakland Athletics
in both games (6?5 and 12?4, respectively).
[23]
In 1968,
Greg Washburn
, a pitcher in the
California Angels
organization, pitched two Opening Day games in the same year?first for the
San Jose Bees
of the
California League
, and then for the
Quad City Angels
of the
Midwest League
. Washburn won both openers 2?0. This is the only record of a pitcher pitching two openers in the same year in professional baseball.
Hall of Famer
Tom Seaver
holds the record among major league pitchers for the most Opening Day starts, doing the honors 16 times in his career with the
New York Mets
,
Cincinnati Reds
, and
Chicago White Sox
.
[24]
The record for most consecutive victories on Opening Day by a team in history is ten, shared by the
Boston Beaneaters
(1887?1896) and the
Houston Astros
(2013?2022).
[25]
Recent Opening Days
[
edit
]
Major League Baseball had most of its teams open the 2011 season on a Thursday (March 31) or Friday (April 1) rather than the traditional Monday, in order to prevent the World Series from extending into November.
[26]
Similarly, most teams opened the 2012 season on Thursday (April 5) or Friday (April 6). However, subsequent seasons through 2017 returned to Monday openers for most teams. For the 2018 season, all 30 teams were scheduled to open the season on Thursday, March 29 (the earliest domestic start for a regular season in MLB history, and the first time since 1968 that all major league teams were scheduled to start the season on the same day, although two games were subsequently rained out and postponed to Friday, March 30).
[27]
In 2019, MLB scheduled an even earlier opening day for most teams on Thursday, March 28; this excludes a two-game series on March 20 and 21 between the
Seattle Mariners
and
Oakland Athletics
at the
Tokyo Dome
in Japan.
[28]
The opening of the 2020 season was originally scheduled for Thursday, March 26, but was rescheduled to Thursday, July 23 and Friday, July 24 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
.
[29]
The 2021 season opened on Thursday, April 1.
[30]
The opening of the 2022 season, originally scheduled for Thursday, March 31, was delayed to Thursday, April 7 due to the
2021?22 lockout
.
[31]
[32]
The 2023 Major League Baseball season opened on Thursday, March 30. It was the first time since 1968 that all major league teams played and the first opening day that 30 teams played as there were only 20 teams in 1968. The opening of the 2024 season is scheduled on Thursday, March 28; 28 of the 30 teams would play their first game of the season, with the
Los Angeles Dodgers
and
San Diego Padres
having played their opening game March 20 at the
Gocheok Sky Dome
in
South Korea
.
International Opening Games
[
edit
]
Quotes
[
edit
]
In the beginning, there was no baseball. But ever since, there have been few beginnings as good as the start of a new baseball season. It is the most splendid time in sport, in part because baseball is about the only sport left?now that football players report to training camp before the Fourth of July, and hockey players start skating in Indian summer?that still has a time and is true to it.
There is no sports event like Opening Day of baseball, the sense of beating back the forces of darkness and the National Football League.
You always get a special kick on Opening Day, no matter how many you go through. You look forward to it like a birthday party when you're a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen.
A home opener is always exciting, no matter if it's home or on the road.
References
[
edit
]
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External links
[
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]