Opening day in the MLB is more than just a day. It is THE day. The day where fans of all 30 teams have hope. The day that marks the beginning of a six month journey (seven months if you are lucky). The day we celebrate out national pastime.
The past couple of months, former Cardinals star and hall of famer Ozzie Smith created a petition with the intent to make opening day a national holiday. He needed to get at least 100,000 signatures in order for the White House to consider it and he got just that. However on Friday, this attempt was officially denied. Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest sent out an email response on Friday to everyone who signed the petition (including myself) stating: “it’s a little our of our strike zone”. Many people didn’t think it would actually work, but it couldn’t hurt to try.
This decision should not get us baseball fans down. We will still look at opening day as a national holiday regardless of this decision. We will still skip school, we will still skip work, and we will still act accordingly despite what anyone says. We do not need to have written permission from congress, although it would have been nice. Opening day is about tradition and family. To me, there is nothing like attending a baseball game with your family or even watching it on television. I love the tradition of Major League Baseball and always will. I’ll always love the annual tradition of telling my boss that I’m sick and will be back at work tomorrow.