Thursday, April 3, 2014

DOES BASEBALL DESERVE A HOLIDAY?

A HOLIDAY FOR BASEBALL?

Baseball’s Opening Day a holiday?  My first thought was it must be a gimmick or PR stunt.  But there was former major leaguer Ozzie Smith on television fronting a petition signed by 100,000 people to make Major League Baseball’s Opening Day a National holiday.  This was no joke.  I’m actually writing this post while sitting in the press box at Chase Field for the Arizona Diamondbacks home opener. against the San Francisco Giants.  I feel the excitement in the air… groundskeepers prepping the field like worker ants, players getting ready in the clubhouse talking about the butterflies in their stomach.

Sure baseball is America’s game, but come on.  We already have plenty of holidays… ten if you’re counting.  Plus this season there was more than one Opening Day.  The Diamondbacks and Dodgers opened the regular season in Australia more than a week before Arizona’s home opener.  And while most teams opened the season Monday, March 31st, the Yankees and Astros didn’t have their opener until Tuesday.  The White House appropriately responded by saying it would take no action because the petition was “outside our strike zone.”  They continue to have a sense of humor on Pennsylvania Avenue.  I’m sure President Obama has more important issues to address.

You might ask, what’s wrong with another national holiday, it’s one more chance to avoid working.  Perhaps I’m down on the idea because it would mean there’s yet another holiday I have to work.  I’m a fan of baseball… not necessarily fanatical, but I have plenty of fond memories of the baseball growing up.  The Dodgers in the 70’s and 80’s… Steve Garvey with his Popeye arms crushing a homerun or Kirk Gibson doing his famous homerun trot limping around the bases while pumping his arm.  You tend to get jaded when sports becomes your job.  Don’t get me wrong I still love sports, but going to a sporting event now feels like work rather than a fun way to past the day away.  It certainly does not feel like a holiday to me.   

In the past few decades, football has taken over as a true love of a majority of sports fans in America.  Baseball is scrambling to stay relevant.  Major League Baseball spent nearly $26 million dollars advertising in major media last year, according to the Kantar Media unit of WPP.  This is compared to just $11.9 million spent in 2011 and $18.7 million in 2012.


For years there has been conversations about Super Bowl Monday being a national holiday.  Where would it end?  A holiday for all NBA Finals Game Seven’s or the day after the Oscars.  What if the ESPY’s are more your style?  If any event is that important to you it’s best to plan ahead and take a vacation day.  Calling in sick is another, more desperate option.  Let’s leave the holidays to those who’ve made a indelible impact on our country.  Sports are games after all and even the greatest athletes will never be carved into the side of Mount Rushmore.

Key words: MLB, Baseball, Holiday, Petition, Opening Day

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