Opening Day, the Baseball Holiday
As the calendar turns from March to April, a madness turn into a fever.
Spring fever, that is. And it seems like the only prescription for spring fever is a trip to one’s local ballpark for Opening Day.
The first Opening Day, also the first game played in the National League, was on April 22, 1876. Boston defeated the Philadelphia Athletics 6-5 at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia.
Future Hall of Famer George Wright, playing shortstop for Boston, was the first batter in National League history, while “Orator Jim” O’Rourke, another future inductee, patrolled center field for the visitors that Saturday.
The New York Clipper, in describing the day’s events, noted the “weather was favorable and the attendance large, over three thousand persons being inside the inclosure (sic).”
Starting at 3:40 pm, the game lasted just over two hours and “was sharply played throughout, the Bostons winning by their superior fielding and base-running.” Indeed, Boston broke a 4-4 deadlock with two runs in the top of the ninth inning, thanks to “desperate base-running,” and withstood a Philadelphia rally to win the game.
Despite Philadelphia and Boston having the honor of playing the first Opening Day game in Major League Baseball history, over the years another city has come to be associated with the season’s lid-lifter. Cincinnati has always been a proud baseball town, and as long as there has been a major league team in the Queen City, odds are that there would be a home game on Opening Day.
The Queen City
But why Cincinnati?
The answer does not seem to be clear and may involve multiple possibilities.
Some have speculated that since the Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati franchise has been scheduled to open at home – often as the first game on the schedule – nearly every season since 1876. According to Greg Rhodes, the Reds’ Team Historian, “it appears it was a combination of geography, opportunism, and money,” though the true reason has been lost to the history books.
As Cincinnati was often among the southern-most cities in the league, Rhodes explained, it made sense to have a slightly milder climate play host to games in mid- to late-April. Fields might be in better shape than those in cities such as Chicago or Boston.
Additionally, as competing major leagues entered the baseball scene, it became important to draw more fans in order to survive. Knowing that the Reds would open at home became a selling point for Frank Bancroft, the Reds’ business manager.
“The Reds could make this an annual affair, and [in] 1890, after the Reds re-joined the National League, Bancroft tirelessly promoted the opener,” Rhodes mentioned. “And for that, Bancroft, or ‘Banny’ as he was fondly called, is remembered as the ‘Father of Opening Day.’”
Though the Reds no longer host the first MLB game played each season, they still have one of baseball’s most enduring Opening Day traditions. As Opening Day became an event in Cincinnati, other attractions were added. Simple parades promoted the game and featured marching bands and both teams. As more businesses and fan clubs got involved, the parades became larger and more organized. But in 1920, the fans from the Findlay Market set the stage for a Cincinnati tradition.
To celebrate the team’s victory in the 1919 World Series, shop owners and other fans walked roughly one mile from the Findlay Market – Ohio’s oldest continuously operating public market – to Crosley Field, to await the first pitch of the 1920 season. Rhodes described it as resembling “one large roving tailgate party,” but it soon became the biggest and best run of all the parades.
The Reds and the Findlay Market Association continued the tradition after the team left Crosley Field. Former Cincinnati owner Marge Schott once said, “The Findlay Market Parade is Opening Day! Without the parade it just wouldn’t be Opening Day!”
The Findlay Market Parade, featuring nearly 180 marching groups, will wind its way from Findlay Market to downtown Cincinnati in time for the Reds’ tilt at Great American Ball Park.
Capital idea
Cincinnati might get a lot of attention on Opening Day, but the National Pastime in our nation’s capital is not to be outdone for tradition.
Since President William Howard Taft’s toss to Washington’s Walter Johnson at National Park in 1910, nearly every President of the United States has made a ceremonial first pitch prior to a home opener. (Jimmy Carter, Donald Trump and Joe Biden were the only presidents not to do so.) While the Senators were in Washington, Griffith Stadium and D.C. (later RFK) Stadium were the places to be on Opening Day for presidential pomp and circumstance.
When there was no baseball in Washington, Baltimore became a handy alternative, but when baseball returned in 2005, so did the presidential first pitches on Opening Day.
President George W. Bush hurled the ceremonial first pitches before the first Washington Nationals home game in 2005 and before their first-ever home game at Nationals Park in 2008.
Two years later, on the 100th anniversary of Taft’s first pitch, Barack Obama did the honors at Nationals Park, rankling some observers for wearing a Chicago White Sox cap (in celebration of his favorite MLB team) in addition to his Nationals jacket.
Holiday spirit
Opening Day is an affair in the capital, but does the day deserve to have the “O” and “D” capitalized? After all, Labor Day and Memorial Day receive the proper noun treatment, as most holidays do.
Baseball fans consider Opening Day a holiday. Movements have been made – so far, unsuccessfully – to make Opening Day an official city holiday in Cincinnati. In 2014, Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith was at the forefront of a group aiming to make it a national holiday, collecting signatures for a petition through the federal government’s We the People petitioning program.
“There are 22 million people who have, some point in time, played hooky from work or school, so it’s already an unofficial holiday,” Smith told MLB.com. “The excitement that is created by Opening Day – not only in St. Louis, but across the country – is what this is all about.”
Though capital letters weren’t always used to describe Opening Day, Paul Dickson, in his eponymous work, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, says that the term is usually capitalized, as is its counterpart, Opening Night. Many baseball fans fall in line with Smith’s thinking, as it represents an unofficial holiday and an excuse to skip school or call in sick to the office. MLB.com’s style guide concurs with Dickson, and the SABR style guide suggests that the letters only be capitalized when referring to a specific season’s Opening Day. Otherwise, generic opening days, such as those of a series, remain lower case.
However, Opening Day is hardly a generic day or concept. Major League Baseball has produced logos specifically for Opening Day since at least as early as 2002. Topps has created “Opening Day” baseball card sets over the past two decades. As the Reds’ Frank Bancroft discovered at the turn of the previous century, if there is money to be made on Opening Day, individuals will find a way to make it happen.
Yet those who profit on Opening Day are baseball fans throughout the world, for it is an opportunity to begin the season with a sense of renewed hope and optimism. Every team starts the day with a clean slate and an equal chance to win the World Series.
Officially or not, it is every baseball fan’s holiday.
Matt Rothenberg was the manager of the Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
Records and Memorable Moments
(Sources: Baseball-Reference.com, Baseball-Almanac.com and Opening Day: All Major League Baseball Season Opening Games, by Team, 1876-1998, by Don Kerr)
Records
• Most Opening Day Starts (Pitchers): Tom Seaver – 16
• Most Opening Day Grand Slams, Career: Sixto Lezcano – 2 (1978, 1980) and Hanley Ramírez (2009, 2015)
• Most Opening Day Home Runs, Career: Frank Robinson, Ken Griffey Jr., Adam Dunn – 8
• Most Opening Day Shutouts, Career: Walter Johnson – 7
• Fewest Hits Allowed on Opening Day: Bob Feller and Leon Day – 0
• Best Record (Pitcher), Career (minimum two decisions): Jimmy Key – 7-0
• Worst Record (Pitcher), Career (minimum two decisions): Phil Niekro – 0-7
• Hit For The Cycle: Gee Walker, Detroit (1937)
• Most Runs in One Game, Team: 21 – Cleveland (1925)
• Most Strikeouts in One Game (Pitcher): 15 – Camilo Pascual, Washington (1960)
• Most Home Runs in One Game: 3 – George Bell, Toronto (1988), Karl “Tuffy” Rhodes, Chicago Cubs (1994), Dmitri Young, Detroit (2005) and Matt Davidson, Chicago White Sox (2018)
• Longest Game, Innings: 16 - Toronto at Cleveland (2012)
• Highest Percentage of Opening Day Games Won, Through 2024 Season: New York Mets – .651 (Highest in American League: Seattle Mariners – .604)
• Most Opening Day Wins: 85 – Atlanta/Milwaukee/Boston Braves, Boston Bees/Doves/Nationals/Reds (National League 1876-present date)
• Most Opening Day Losses: 74 – Cincinnati (American Association 1882-1889, National League 1890-present date)
Memorable Moments
• 2012: Ichiro Suzuki had four hits, including an RBI single in the 11th inning, as the Mariners defeated the Athletics 3-1 in the MLB season opener at the Tokyo Dome in Japan.
• 2004: Rockies first baseman Todd Helton went 4-for-4 with two runs scored in a 6-2 win over the Diamondbacks, with three of the hits coming off fellow future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson.
• 2001: Padres outfielder Tony Gwynn collected his 3,110th hit, tying him with Dave Winfield on the all-time list. With his appearance in the game against the Giants, Gwynn became the fourth player in National League history to spend 20+ years while playing his entire career with one team. The others are: Mel Ott (1926-1947 Giants), Stan Musial (1941-1944, 1946-1963 Cardinals), and Willie Stargell (1962-1982 Pirates), with Craig Biggio (1988-2007 Astros) later joining that list.
• 2000: Vladimir Guerrero hit two home runs and drove in all four runs in Montreal’s 10-4 loss to the Dodgers.
• 1996: Randy Johnson struck out 14 White Sox batters in seven innings as the Mariners defeated Chicago 3-2 in 12 innings in the first Opening Day game to be held in the month of March. It marked the second time in Johnson’s career – the first coming in 1993 – that Johnson fanned 14 batters on Opening Day.
• 1993: Jack Morris of the Blue Jays made his 14th straight Opening Day start to set an American League record. From 1980-93, Morris’ 14 assignments on Opening Day are five more than any other pitcher in that span and include five complete games.
• 1989: Rickey Henderson tied a record with three stolen bases on Opening Day as his Yankees beat the Twins 4-2.
• 1983: Tom Seaver made his first appearance for the New York Mets since 1977 and matched an Opening Day record in the process. For Seaver, it was his 14th Opening Day assignment, tying the then-major league record set by Walter Johnson. Seaver, who would go on to extend his record to 16 Opening Day starts, defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-0, at Shea Stadium.
• 1975: Frank Robinson of the Cleveland Indians became the first full-time Black manager in AL or NL history, making his managerial debut at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium. Robinson not only guided the Indians to a 5-3 victory over the New York Yankees but also hit the 575th home run of his illustrious career.
• 1974: Atlanta Braves slugger Hank Aaron blasted a historic three-run home run against Reds pitcher Jack Billingham. The home run, coming at Riverfront Stadium, was the 714th of Aaron’s career, tying him with the legendary Babe Ruth for the most home runs in major league history.
• 1971: Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants hit a home run on Opening Day, marking the start of a historic streak. The 39-year-old Mays would hit home runs in each of the Giants’ first four games, setting a major league record.
• 1960: Don Drysdale set a new Opening Day record with 14 strikeouts in 11 innings pitched for the Dodgers against the Cubs. Six days later, the Senators’ Camilo Pascual set a new Opening Day mark that still stands with 15 Ks against the Red Sox.
• 1959: The Dodgers’ Don Drysdale hit his first Opening Day home run, accounting for the Dodgers’ only run in a 6-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs. Drysdale would later homer on Opening Day in 1965 against the Mets, becoming the only pitcher to homer in multiple Opening Day games.
• 1947: Jackie Robinson made a historic debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first Black player to appear in an AL or NL game in the 20th century.
• 1940: Cleveland’s Bob Feller hurled the first and only Opening Day no-hitter in AL or NL history, out-dueling Edgar Smith of the Chicago White Sox in winning a 1-0 decision at Comiskey Park.
• 1936: The Cubs’ Billy Herman went 5-for-5 with an Opening Day record-tying four extra base hits (three doubles and a homer) in Chicago’s 12-7 win over St. Louis.
• 1917: Boston’s Babe Ruth pitched a three-hitter in shutting down the Yankees on Opening Day.
• 1907: New York Giants forfeited opening day to Philadelphia after umpire Bill Klem was hit by a snowball. Due to a snowstorm, large piles of snow were in foul territory. After the Giants fell behind, fans began to throw snowballs onto the field and began to rush the field.
