My Plan to Fix Opening Day

This post is about a month late, but I didn't have a blog a month ago.  Are you aware that Major League Baseball had four Opening Days this year?  That's just dumb.  It worked out well for me because three of the four happened during my Easter vacation.  Let's go through the Opening Days:


Opening Day 1:  March 28, Mariners vs. A's in Tokyo.  This game started at either 2 or 3 in the morning on the west coast, where almost all Mariners or A's fans live.  I'm going to say that the majority of baseball fans didn't even realize the regular season was starting.  If your season starts and nobody knows about it, that's a problem.  And if you did know about it, you probably couldn't watch it.  I would have gotten up to watch some of it before going to work.  The game was on MLB Network, but it wasn't being shown live, so I did not get to see any of it.  Who thought this was a good idea?  Much like Bill Simmons's idea that babies born on Leap Year Day shouldn't be recognized, this game and the one the following day just shouldn't have been recognized.


Opening Day 2:  April 4, Cardinals vs. Marlins at night.  I guess it's a good thing that one of the Opening Days featured the World Series Champions.  I watched some before going to wing night on the first night of my vacation (let us never speak of that wing night again, Bobby knows what I'm talking about).  This was a one game series, which was pretty silly.


Opening Day 3:  April 5, fourteen teams start their seasons.  Why didn't all the other teams start on this day?  That would have made a little sense.


Opening Day 4:  April 6, the other twelve teams finally get started.  This was nine days after the regular season officially started.


So this really is the easiest problem in baseball to fix:  One Opening Day.  Problem solved.  But if you want more details, I'll give them to you.  Every game is played in the United States.  Sorry Canada, the Blue Jays should start every season on the road.  In return, all Canadian hockey teams should get to open their season at home against an American team (or have every Canadian team open against another Canadian team, if you like that better).  I think Canada will take that deal.  And I don't know what Opening Day was like decades ago, but I remember the season usually starting on a Monday (perhaps with one game the night before).  I never liked that.  Teams play afternoon games and people are at work and kids are at school.  So to fix that problem, we move Opening Day to Sunday.  I know series never start on Sundays, but it would make sense for Opening Day.  We have 28 teams play afternoon games leading up to the main event, which is the World Series Champion hosting a night game, possibly against the team they beat in the LCS.


You're welcome, Major League Baseball.