brrrBaseball

Well, if you're a sports talk radio listener as I am, by now you're throughly disgusted with talk of altering the MLB schedule. I know, it sucks that Cleveland had 27 games canceled already and had to travel to scenic Milwaukee to play a series. But let's get real:
1. MLB ain't shortening the schedule. won't happen, not now, not ever
2. Playing all the early games in domes and warm weather isn't feasible or fair. How would Minnesota feel about playing their last 18 on road to balance out their heavy April schedule?
3. Scheduled double-headers don't really draw that well and they cost owners a bunch of money in ticket sales, not to mention taxing ballparks, police, and stadium employees.

Now that we've settled that, I want to talk about the genius of Opening Day. April is a miserable month for watching baseball in most cities. It's cold, often rainy/snowy, and the games don't mean as much. Almost every team draws their smallest crowds in the month of April. EXCEPT FOR OPENING DAY. How did MLB ever pull this off? People jam the stands, selling out ballparks that won't be full again for the rest of the year. The Expos routinely sold out Opening Day even in their final years in Montreal. The weather isn't any better, the games often feature errors, short pitching outings, and intolerable conditions. Still, baseball fans come out in droves. There's just something majestic about that first pitch, first hit, first tailgate. Other sports have tried, but no major sport has managed to create such a hoopla around the first of many games. Kudos to you MLB - you've manged to make one of your least desirable products your most in demand. GENIUS