Opening Day of the Major League baseball season is a special day for millions of Americans so much so that there have been attempts to make it a National Holiday. I am opposed to that for a very simple reason. As it is, a large percentage of the people who are in the stands at the fifteen ball parks hosting Opening Day are either skipping work or school or are supposed to be somewhere else that they have blown off to be present at this spectacle. If Opening Day were made a holiday, a lot of the drama and excitement generated by these people sneaking off to see it would be lost.
Over the past several years, I have been fortunate enough to have been in different ball parks on Opening Day. I have twice watched the Arizona Diamondbacks open their season against the San Francisco Giants in Chase Field in Phoenix with a sold out stadium full of people. In both those years, 2012 and 2014, the Giants went on from that opener to win the World Series. On Opening Day in 2012, the Giants started their Championship season with a 5-4 loss to the D’Backs and in 2014 they started with a 9-8 win.
(In 2012, Pablo Sandoval, who I am sure Red Sox fans remember, went 2-for-5 and doubled in a run to pull the Giants within one run with two outs in the ninth but the rally fell short. In 2014, he drove in a run in the Giants rally from behind 7-3 in the seventh to tie the game and eventually win it. I should note that although it will come as no surprise to Red Sox fans, he also made an error in each game.)
You have to experience the excitement of Opening Day at Chase Field to appreciate it. Every one of the 49,130 seats is filled and the crowd is into the game as they are the rest of the season. They hold a dollar a ticket, 50-50 raffle, for charity there every game and on Opening Day 2014, the kitty was over $52,000. (In 2014 the D’Backs have played two games in Australia before their home opener a week later.)
While I am on the subject of games played in other countries, can anybody explain to me why Commissioner Manfred, who I think of as “The Idiot In The Commissioner’s Office,” feels it will be good for baseball to have the Yankees and Red Sox play two of their 19 regular season games in England next year? On the one hand, he is convinced that he has to change the game to maintain attendance levels in this country and on the other, wants to take away two games of the biggest rivalry in sports from their fans. That is almost as ridiculous as starting extra innings with a runner on second base.
I have also experienced Opening Day in Tropicana Field, where the Red Sox opened up on Thursday, in both 2103 and 2015. The Rays are lucky to draw 10,000 fans at most games, but Opening Day is the exception. In 2013, opening against the Orioles, they drew 31,042 fans, a sell out. Against the same team the next day the “crowd” of 13,906 was lost in the stands. Last year even the mighty Yankees who sold the place out on Opening Day drew just 19,366 the next day and the day after just 12,737.
Opening Day this year not only featured the division champion Red Sox but fans received a promotional cow bell schedule magnet. The promotion is very appropriate because not only does Tropicana Stadium have more fans with cow bells than any other in baseball on a daily basis, they seem to bring and ring two apiece on Opening Day.
What a start! Mookie Betts hit the first pitch of the season to the wall in straight away center field and Kevin Kiermaier made a sensational catch to rob him of at least extra bases. Then in the second inning the same Kiermaier got crossed up with left fielder Denard Span and misplayed a bloop single into an inside the park homer for Eduardo Nunez and the Sox were off to a 3-0 lead.
The Rays by the way, got rid of or lost Evan Longoria, Logan Morrison, Stephen Souza, Corey Dickerson and Alex Cobb, among others, over the offseason and are not expected to do much this year. Chris Sale picked up right where he left off last year and held the punchless Rays scoreless on one hit, while striking out nine over six innings.
The Sox added a run in the top of the seventh on doubles by Bogaerts and Devers and led 4-0 going to the last of the seventh. Matt Barnes came out of the bullpen which was the backbone of the team last year, and continued the dominance of the Rays, getting them 1-2-3. The Sox went to the last of the eighth ahead 4-0 and it looked like an easy win.
Then the bottom fell out. Joe Kelly came in and gave up a double and three walks while getting only one out and Carson Smith came in and gave up a walk, a triple and a single to make it 6-4, Rays and Opening Day suddenly wasn’t as much fun for Red Sox fans. The best the Sox could do in the ninth was a double by Nunez and they had lost their first game. It won’t be the last one they lose but losing the opener after having it all but in the books had Red Sox fans shaking their heads already.
With games between the Cubs and Marlins, the Astros and Rangers, the Dodgers and Giants and the Indians and Mariners on national television, baseball made a big splash on Opening Day. Unfortunately, they did these games on ESPN where no matter how exciting the game is, they can make it boring.
Fortunately for Red Sox fans, the Sox opener was handled by the class team of Dave O’Brien and Jerry Remy, who can make even the most boring game interesting but even they acted like the sky was falling after that one.
— Carl Johnson lives in Sanford and writes a weekly baseball column for the Journal Tribune Sunday. Contact him at baseballworldbjt@yahoo.com and check out his blog at baseballworldbjt.com.
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