Opening Day 2008

I wanted to chime in on the debate that seems to grip sportscasters, radio personalities, newspaper columnists, and bloggers every year the weather isn’t 65 and sunny on Opening Day.

We have few traditions anymore in sports, and while Cincinnati doesn’t host the first baseball game of the year anymore, the city still prides itself on having the Reds at home to start every season.

What Lance McAlister and others have suggested is to let the Reds (and other ‘cold’ weather teams) play their first week of games out of town, then come home the second week in April.  The only way that plan works is if we push back Opening Day until May…because around here and other cold weather cities, it’s too much of a crap shoot in April.  The owners will never shorten the schedule because they need every single game for revenue.  Fans wouldn’t accept higher ticket prices in place of less games because it would squeeze out the casual fan who only goes to a couple games a year (but are still important to the bottom line).

This year and last year, the weather was lousy.  No way around that.  Two years ago (2007) was one of the most beautiful days around here in a long time.

We have a few traditions left, and Opening Day is the singular event that makes me proud to call myself a Cincinnatian.  I know that Opening Day has the stigma of being a social event…the day that people that don’t like baseball games to bid for tickets on eBay.  The place to see and be seen.  However, I love the fact that we are still a baseball town, despite the lean years this past decade.  It’s cool that we still love baseball around here, and the passion has not faded like in Pittsburgh and other cities.

From my annual trip to Kroger to buy every ‘red’ beer on the shelf (Red Stripe, Leine’s Red Lager, Redhook Ale, etc.), to waking up early and making my famous goetta tortilla wraps while watching Major League, to drinking beers and other cocktails at a condo in OTR, to wandering down the parade route to Fountain Square, to fighting my way in to the Inbetween Tavern, to making it to the park early for pre-game festivities…it’s all such a perfect day…no matter what the weather throws at us.  Just the fact that the Reds will be on TV or radio from today until the end of September is enough to boost my spirits.

Hats, gloves, and blankets were made for cold weather, so let’s use them if the temperature happens to dip below 50 (or 40) on Opening Day.  But this constant call for the Reds not to open the season at home, just so they can open the season at home a week later under similar weather patterns, needs to stop.

The Reds need to open the season at home every year.  Period.  Delaying this one week will just rip away another tradition, in a time when stability feels pretty darn good.

Opening Day in Cincinnati…see everyone next year on the first Monday in April.

(or last Monday in March)