Opening Day
Opening Day
Opening Day is the most important event in the baseball calendar. The regular season begins anew, and since the major teams reset their scores, the feeling of newness prevails.
The name “Opening Day” refers to the first game of the cycle: two of the Major League Baseball teams play usually during the first Monday of April, and occasionally on the 31st of March. Minor League Baseball teams join the celebration within a couple of days; their game is held always during the same week of the month.
It is that fresh season that brings new hope and challenges for the players and the fans. This event is accompanied by performances and visual spectacles such as parades, fireworks or even circus stunts. Ever since 1876, the most prominent hosts of Opening Day have been the Cincinnati Reds, who have started the whole tradition.
Why the Cincinnati Reds? Their home city was the motherland of the first professional baseball team. The Reds had been “opening the Openers” for over 110 years. In 1990, however, their privilege has ended, and they became a guest team. Throughout their century-long reign, though, there also were times when they had to give up their claim because of heavy rains at home. Some games in Cincinnati featured famous and important guests, such as President William Howard Taft in 1910 or President Harry S. Truman in 1950, who amazed the public by pitching equally well with both his right and left hand. In Cincinnati, Opening Day used to be a city holiday. Since 1920, the annual Findlay Market Parade has been gathering almost the entire population; the sports fever connects people of all ages, races, and social statuses.
The Parade is still relevant and significant in Opening Day tradition. The celebration spreads all over the country; adult fans call in sick at work and students play truant. They all meet at the ballpark and praise the “first official day of spring”. They watch their teams as they introduce their whole staffs, this one time of year. These fans cheer as local celebrities, politicians or retired players walk on stage to say, “Play Ball”! Then the pitcher comes to the foreground – he throws the most honorary ball of his career and officially starts the season of 162 regular games. Everyone is full of hope and new energy.
Opening Day may have been a “city holiday” in historical Cincinnati, but it is not a national day-off. In 2014 Ozzie Smith, a former baseball shortstop, petitioned the U.S. government on this matter; he assembled 100,000 signatures, but he was declined. The authorities might consider this day to be merely a sporting event, but for a baseball fan it means much more than that. It seems to be a festivity of a spiritual value, the first week of April becomes the symbol of renewal and freedom.
Opening Day mirrors New Year’s Eve, but is more exceptional for the United States. Moreover, even though it continues an over a hundred-year-old tradition, it has a fresh quality to it.