How Not to Start a Season

Only in the world of Major League Baseball, can you start a season, take a break and then start it again almost ten days later.  Here is the timeline of the start of this year’s season:

• February 9^th – 15^th – Spring training begins for all MLB teams when pitchers and catchers first report.
• February 14^th – 20^th – The rest of position players report to camp.
• February 22^nd – The first spring training game between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
• March 20^th – 21^st – The start of the baseball season begins in Seoul, South Korea for this two-game series also between the Padres and Dodgers.
• March 22^nd -25^th – The spring training season continues and even the Padres and Dodgers go back to spring training games. 
• March 26^th – Spring training games officially end on this date.
• March 28^th – Opening day (again) for the rest of the teams, as well as the Padres and Dodgers.

It is funny how MLB markets March 28^th, since they call it Opening Day, even though the first regular season game was already played on March 20^th in Korea.  This of course is not the first time that MLB has chosen to start its opening day in this staggered manner.  This kind of dual opening day starting overseas, and then back in the US also occurred in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2019.

We are not here to bash the practice of playing games overseas, since there is no issue with growing the game outside the US. Both the NFL and the NBA play games overseas, but neither does that at the expense of their opening day. At least in those leagues they do understand the sanctity of the first games of the season.

The words Opening Day, in baseball parlance have a special meaning for fans who grew up with the game.  Equating the solemnity of Christmas or New Year’s Day to Opening Day is not outlandish in our opinion.  Unlike Christmas or New Years though, MLB has decided that a singular day is not enough.  Instead, at another smack at baseball’s rich tradition, the baseball hierarchy has decided to dilute the start of the season by marketing multiple opening days.  We here at BP are never surprised by the greed of those that run baseball nowadays, just continually disappointed.