Sunday, April 2, 2006

Baseball's "Opening Night"

It's great to see the regular season here at last. I'm not the biggest fan of the first game being the Sunday night game on ESPN, but it is the regular season. I prefer the traditional Cincinnati home opener as the first game, but that's gone by the wayside.

If I remember correctly, the first year of the Sunday night/ESPN kickoff was scheduled in Cincinnati, and then owner Marge Schott kept the traditional parade and ceremonies of Opening Day on Monday, which was actually their second game. Reds fans kept the tradition, too, buying only about 20,000 tickets for the artificial opener. Roundly criticized in the media, Schott defended her position of opening day ceremonies on Monday. True to form, the media were so used to bashing Schott for her actions and ideas that they couldn't recognize when she did something right.

The National League then kept the tradition of their opening game in Cincinnati on Monday, which I think is why the Sunday night game is always an American League game.

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