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!”

Today, the 96th Findlay Market Parade, featuring nearly 180 marching groups, will wind its way from Findlay Market to downtown Cincinnati in time for the Reds’ tilt against Pittsburgh at Great American Ball Park.

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.

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. Last year, 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.”