Opening Day

The Phillies will raise their World Series flag tonight.

Thank god! It's Opening Day, and the excruciating anticipation is over. The season starts with tonight's game between the Braves and Phillies (which I'll be watching/live blogging if anyone wants to drop by and say hi) on ESPN at 8 PM. Most (13) openers will be tomorrow with the exceptions being the Braves and Phillies (who have an off-day because it was originally scheduled for tomorrow but was moved to today) and the Brewers and Giants (who start on Tuesday). Spring Training is over, rosters are set, and everyone (except those injured) is ready to go. No more anticipation. No more predictions. No more hope. It's all reality now. Let's play the games.

Opening Day is, of course, the first day of the regular season, and like most of baseball it has its traditions. One of the most notable is the tradition of starting the season in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Red Stockings became an amateur team in 1863, and they became professional five years later. After the 1870 season, several players jumped ship and headed to Boston (where they also took the nickname Red Stockings), but a new Cincinnati Reds team became the charter member of the National League in 1876. Because they hold this prestigious position, Major League Baseball allowed the Reds to host the first game of the season from 1876 to 1989. The Reds weren't very good in those games going 50-52-1. However, in 1990 (not because they were bad in those opening games), the Reds opened in Houston, breaking tradition. Part of the reason most people don't consider today Opening Day is because the Reds do not play. One of the most notable events in an opening game in Cincinnati was Hank Aaron's 714th home run in 1974. Tomorrow, the Reds host the Mets in their opener.

As the nation's pasttime (we can argue the current status later), baseball is also frequently intertwined with politics, and there is no exception with Opening Day. William Taft began the practice of throwing the season's first pitch in 1910. However, he and other following presidents would not throw them in Cincinnati, instead staying in Washington, D.C. if a team existed there. Sometimes, the President could not make it. Wilson missed 3 straight from 1917-1919 because of World War I. In 1921, Warren Harding threw the first first pitch in which the Senators lost, ending a five-game winning streak (just shows you how many times the President didn't make it). Herbert Hoover became the first President to make each Opening Day from 1929-1932. Franklin Delano Roosevely, not surprisingly, has thrown the most Opening Day pitches with 8 (though that number is a bit surprising but WWII intervened). Truman almost caught him by throwing 7 of them from 1946-1952, and he was the first southpaw. Dwight Eisenhower matched FDR's 8 and became the first two-term President to make each game. In 1966, Johnson became the first president to just not attend. 1971 saw the last D.C. first pitch, and George Pitzer, a prisoner of war, was the one to throw it. Following that, several different stadiums were used with Baltimore being a common one. Throwing out the first pitch also became less-frequent over the next 30 years without a home team. In George W. Bush's first Opening Day as President, Bud Selig, former owner of the Brewers, threw the first pitch in Miller Park. In 2005, the Nationals brought another team to Washington, restarting the tradition, but Bush went to Cincinnati to throw it the following season. This year? Obama has something better to do.

Tomorrow, I'll give you some fun facts about Opening Day, but for now, enjoy the game, come say hi, and let's Play Ball!