| Opening Day | |
|---|---|
 2009 Opening Day atDodger Stadium inLos Angeles | |
| Observed by | United States,Canada |
| 2025 date | March 27 |
| 2026 date | March 25/26 |
| Frequency | annual |
Opening Day is the day on which professionalbaseball leagues begin theirregular season. ForMajor League Baseball (MLB) and most of the Americanminor leagues, this day typically falls during the first week of April, although in recent years it has occasionally fallen in the last week of March. As of 2025, Opening Day falls on the last Thursday of March or the first Thursday of April. InNippon Professional Baseball, this day typically falls during the last week of March.
For baseball fans, Opening Day serves as a symbol of rebirth; writerThomas Boswell once penned a book titled,Why Time Begins on Opening Day.[1] Pre-seasonexhibition games are usually played in the month before Opening Day, duringspring training. Ahome opener is a team's first game of the season on their home field.
Equivalents to Opening Day occur throughout the sport, including minor leagues,college baseball, high school, and youth leagues. Because MLB generally begins its season earlier than the other professional baseball leagues, its Opening Day is the one most commonly recognized by the general public. Most minor leagues start a few days later, but within the same week; theshort season Class A and Rookie leagues are exceptions, as they begin in June. College, high school and youth baseball seasons vary widely depending on location and weather conditions.
For generations, Opening Day has arrived amid pageantry. InCincinnati, home of the sport'sfirst openly all-professional team, the annualFindlay Market Parade marks an official "city holiday" with young and old alike taking the day off to cheer on theReds. For decades, the first pitch of every major league season officially took place in Cincinnati, and the Reds remain the only major league team scheduled to always open the season with a home game (the sole exceptions, since the beginning of the 20th century, being in 1966, when they started the season at Philadelphia after rain washed out the opening series in Cincinnati; 1990, when due to alockout affecting the schedule they opened the season at Houston; and 2022, when anotherlockout led to their opening the season at Atlanta).[2] TheChicago Cubs have been the Reds' most frequent Opening Day opponent, visiting Cincinnati for 36 season openers, most recently in 2007. ThePittsburgh Pirates, against whom the current Reds organization played their first opener in 1882, are a close second with 32, most recently in 2023; no other team has more than 19 (by theSt. Louis Cardinals, most recently in 2014), largely due to the Cubs and Pirates rotating as the Opening Day opponents from 1899 to 1916, then the two teams and the Cardinals rotated from 1917 to 1952.[3] Following the then-Boston Braves relocation toMilwaukee during the 1953 spring training, the Braves swapped schedules with the Pirates and the Opening Day opponent for the Reds began to be rotated amongst the rest of theNational League.[4] Fittingly, the Reds were also the first team to host anInterleague game on Opening Day when the team hosted theLos Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the first year of year-round Interleague play in 2013.[5]
Since 1994ESPN has often televised a regular-season game the night before "Opening Day" and recent years have seen the staging of season-opening series inMexico,Puerto Rico, Japan, and Australia. While these are technically "opening games", Major League Baseball still reserves the title "Opening Day" for the first day in which multiple games are played. (For the first time ever, three televised games were played on Sunday, April 3, 2016, before the traditional "Opening Day" slate of games on Monday, April 4.)[6][7][8]
Opening Day is a state of mind as well, with countless baseball fans known to recognize this unofficial holiday as a good reason to call in sick at work or betruant from school (as most teams typically play their home opener on a weekday afternoon) and go out to the ballpark for the first of 162 regular season games. Teams' home openers serve as the only regular season games during the year in which the entire rosters of both teams as well as coaches and clubhouse staff are introduced to the crowd prior to the games; for the rest of the year, ballparks only introduce the starting lineups and the teams'managers. Some teams, among them theNew York Mets, have had their broadcasters as the master of pre-game ceremonies for their home openers, which also typically feature appearances by retired players, local celebrities or media personalities, politicians, and other dignitaries.
Prior to Opening Day, the teams' managers have to decide the startingpitchers for the game, an assignment typically given to theace of each team's staff.[9] For a pitcher to start on Opening Day is considered an honor, regardless of whether they are on the home or visiting team.[10] Hall of Fame pitcherEarly Wynn, who played for theWashington Senators,Cleveland Indians andChicago White Sox, once said: "An opener is not like any other game. There's that little extra excitement, a faster beating of the heart. You have that anxiety to get off to a good start, for yourself and for the team. You know that when you win the first one, you can't lose 'em all."[1]
In 2014,Ozzie Smith, with the support ofAnheuser-Busch, began a campaign using theWe the People site onWhiteHouse.gov to petition the U.S. government to make Opening Day an officialnational holiday.[11][12]
In 1907, theNew York Giants forfeited their game at thePolo Grounds to thePhiladelphia Phillies, 9–0, after rowdy fans made and threw snowballs. Without police available to restore order, umpireBill Klem awarded the game to the Phillies.[13]
In 1940,Cleveland Indians pitcherBob Feller threw ano-hitter to open the season against theChicago White Sox. It remains the only no-hitter in Opening Day history.[14]
TwelveU.S. presidents have thrown theceremonial first pitch of the season. On April 14, 1910, baseball enthusiastWilliam Howard Taft attended theWashington Senators' home opener atNational Park, becoming the first U.S. president to open the season in this manner.[15]Harry S. Truman threw first pitches with both his right and left arm in 1950.[1] On April 4, 1994,Bill Clinton inaugurated theCleveland Indians' new ballpark, then known as Jacobs Field and now asProgressive Field, with the first pitch.[16]George W. Bush did the honors to inaugurateNationals Park for theWashington Nationals on March 30, 2008.[17]
Ted Williams was a .449hitter in openers, with threehome runs and fourteenruns batted in during fourteen such games and at least one hit in each game.[18]
On April 4, 1974,Hank Aaron of theAtlanta Braves hit his 714th career home run on Opening Day at Cincinnati'sRiverfront Stadium, tyingBabe Ruth on Major League Baseball's all-time list.[1] Aaron finished his career with 755 home runs.
In 14 season openers for theWashington Senators,Walter Johnson pitched a record nine shutouts. Two of his more famous starts include a 3–0 victory over thePhiladelphia Athletics in 1910 and a 1–0 marathon victory while battling the A'sEddie Rommel for 15 innings.
On March 29, 2018,Matt Davidson of theChicago White Sox hit three home runs in his team's opener against theKansas City Royals at Kansas City'sKauffman Stadium. He became the fourth major leaguer with three home runs on Opening Day, following theToronto Blue Jays'George Bell in 1988,Chicago Cubs'Tuffy Rhodes in 1994 and theDetroit Tigers'Dmitri Young in 2005.
TheSt. Louis Cardinals were the first major league team to open their home season with anight game, beating thePittsburgh Pirates 4–2 atSportsman's Park on April 18, 1950.[19]
The firstinterleague Opening Day game was played between theLos Angeles Angels of Anaheim (AL) and theCincinnati Reds (NL) on April 1, 2013 at Cincinnati'sGreat American Ball Park. The Angels won the game in 13 innings, 3–1.[20]
The longest Opening Day game in major league history was played on April 5, 2012 between theCleveland Indians andToronto Blue Jays. The game, played at Cleveland'sProgressive Field, ended with the Blue Jays beating the Indians, 7–4, in 16 innings.[21] The previous record for longest Opening Day game was on April 19, 1960, atCleveland Stadium. That game, lasting 15 innings, also saw the Indians in a losing effort, 4–2, versus theDetroit Tigers. ThePhiladelphia Athletics andWashington Senators also played a 15-inning season opener on April 13, 1926, with Washington winning, 1–0, at home.
On rare occasions, predominantly in the early 20th century, a team would open its home season with adoubleheader. The first of these came when theBoston Americans hosted thePhiladelphia Athletics for two games on April 20, 1903, with Boston winning the first game, 9–4, and Philadelphia taking the second game, 10–7.[22] The most recent Opening Day doubleheader in the major leagues came on April 7, 1971, with theChicago White Sox defeating the hostOakland Athletics in both games (6–5 and 12–4, respectively).[23]
In 1968,Greg Washburn, a pitcher in theCalifornia Angels organization, pitched two Opening Day games in the same year—first for theSan Jose Bees of theCalifornia League, and then for theQuad City Angels of theMidwest League. Washburn won both openers 2–0. This is the only record of a pitcher pitching two openers in the same year in professional baseball.
Hall of FamerTom Seaver holds the record among major league pitchers for the most Opening Day starts, doing the honors 16 times in his career with theNew York Mets,Cincinnati Reds, andChicago White Sox.[24]
The record for most consecutive victories on Opening Day by a team in history is ten, shared by theBoston Beaneaters (1887–1896) and theHouston Astros (2013–2022).[25]
Major League Baseball had most of its teams open the 2011 season on a Thursday (March 31) or Friday (April 1) rather than the traditional Monday, in order to prevent the World Series from extending into November.[26] Similarly, most teams opened the 2012 season on Thursday (April 5) or Friday (April 6). However, subsequent seasons through 2017 returned to Monday openers for most teams. For the 2018 season, all 30 teams were scheduled to open the season on Thursday, March 29 (the earliest domestic start for a regular season in MLB history, and the first time since 1968 that all major league teams were scheduled to start the season on the same day, although two games were subsequently rained out and postponed to Friday, March 30).[27] In 2019, MLB scheduled an even earlier opening day for most teams on Thursday, March 28; this excludes a two-game series on March 20 and 21 between theSeattle Mariners andOakland Athletics at theTokyo Dome in Japan.[28] The opening of the 2020 season was originally scheduled for Thursday, March 26, but was rescheduled to Thursday, July 23 and Friday, July 24 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[29] The 2021 season opened on Thursday, April 1.[30] The opening of the 2022 season, originally scheduled for Thursday, March 31, was delayed to Thursday, April 7 due to the2021–22 lockout.[31][32]The 2023 Major League Baseball season opened on Thursday, March 30. It was the first time since 1968 that all major league teams played and the first opening day that 30 teams played as there were only 20 teams in 1968. The opening of the 2024 season occurred on Thursday, March 28; 28 of the 30 teams played their first game of the season, with theLos Angeles Dodgers andSan Diego Padres having played their opening game March 20 at theGocheok Sky Dome inSouth Korea. The opening of the 2025 season occurred on Thursday, March 27; 26 of the 30 teams played their first game of the season, with theLos Angeles Dodgers andChicago Cubs having played their opening game March 18 at theTokyo Dome in Japan, and theColorado Rockies andTampa Bay Rays opening their season on Friday, March 28 at the Rays' temporary home ofGeorge M. Steinbrenner Field.
In the beginning, there was no baseball. But ever since, there have been few beginnings as good as the start of a new baseball season. It is the most splendid time in sport, in part because baseball is about the only sport left—now that football players report to training camp before the Fourth of July, and hockey players start skating in Indian summer—that still has a time and is true to it.
There is no sports event like Opening Day of baseball, the sense of beating back the forces of darkness and the National Football League.
You always get a special kick on Opening Day, no matter how many you go through. You look forward to it like a birthday party when you're a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen.
A home opener is always exciting, no matter if it's home or on the road.
