Since “well, pitchers and catchers reported, everybody said they are in the best shape of their life, now what?” part of spring training is here finding something to talk about other than the next five weeks of exhibition baseball is happening. The latest, driven as a marketing and advertising ploy by a large macrobrewer of bland beer1, is to name Opening Day a holiday. The Post covered it in today’s edition (Opening Day Day: Does the return of baseball deserve its own holiday?) and there is apparently a White House petition asking the president to making Opening Day a holiday. It’s all nonsense.
Opening Day is already a holiday.
It doesn’t need the sign off of the chief executive and certainly not from a legacy beer desperate to stay relevant in the face of superior local and regional competition. For believers, Opening Day is a holiday whether others recognize it or not. If we need anybody’s sanction, it’s the person who approves our vacation or the computer that sells us our tickets2
Let’s stop worrying about petitions and beer companies — we already know the score. If we’re going to focus any energy on this, let it be on making sure Washington hosts the true Opening Day annually.
1A brewery that likely harbors Pete Kozma sympathies, no less
2I can’t do things like buy new tickets (or stream, this could be a problem) at my new job, so I don’t have tickets to the home opener. Help a blogger out!