2008 Woodie Awards
Baltimore Orioles Welcome a Bright Spring Season
Art LaPenotiere
Issue date: 4/7/04 Section: Sports and Wellness
By game time, temperatures were nudging down through the lower forties and flirting with the thirties. Gusting winds swirled around the immaculately manicured playing field, lifting hot dog wrappers into the grey skies of downtown Baltimore. Occasional sprinkles of cold rain made it even more uncomfortable for hardy fans who had braved the elements. They had prepared well - bringing blankets and sweaters and containers of hot chocolate and flasks of blackberry brandy to stave off the unrelenting rawness.
Sadly, this was not a January NFL playoff game involving the Ravens. No, this was the opening game of the 2004 baseball season for the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Red Sox.
It was a made-for-TV extravaganza, and it probably sounded pretty attractive to the baseball geniuses when they drew up the schedule. But it became just another example of how completely and totally out of touch with its fans Major League Baseball has become.
Consider first the long baseball season which begins with training in balmy cities in Florida and Arizona, then switches to much more unpredictable weather in the hometown venues of teams around the country when the games begin to count. The launch of the baseball season was at one time in mid-April, but greedy owners eventually increased the season to a hundred and sixty-two games and before we knew it opening day was pushed back into late March or early April. With the onset of a strong union, players became complicit too - and the season was stretched on the other end as well, with the World Series dragging out through late October.
And what did baseball do to accommodate the paying customers who would have to brave the elements of games played just days after the end of winter and well into autumn? Once again, the baseball geniuses rose to the occasion. They decided to take some of the sport's most important games out of the sunlight and play them at night! Notable among these games would be Opening Day. Or, more accurately put, Domestic Opening Day (um, make that night.) Why the additional designation? Once again, the baseball geniuses distinguished themselves by deciding to play the first two games of our national pastime in - tada, Tokyo, Japan!
Sadly, this was not a January NFL playoff game involving the Ravens. No, this was the opening game of the 2004 baseball season for the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Red Sox.
It was a made-for-TV extravaganza, and it probably sounded pretty attractive to the baseball geniuses when they drew up the schedule. But it became just another example of how completely and totally out of touch with its fans Major League Baseball has become.
Consider first the long baseball season which begins with training in balmy cities in Florida and Arizona, then switches to much more unpredictable weather in the hometown venues of teams around the country when the games begin to count. The launch of the baseball season was at one time in mid-April, but greedy owners eventually increased the season to a hundred and sixty-two games and before we knew it opening day was pushed back into late March or early April. With the onset of a strong union, players became complicit too - and the season was stretched on the other end as well, with the World Series dragging out through late October.
And what did baseball do to accommodate the paying customers who would have to brave the elements of games played just days after the end of winter and well into autumn? Once again, the baseball geniuses rose to the occasion. They decided to take some of the sport's most important games out of the sunlight and play them at night! Notable among these games would be Opening Day. Or, more accurately put, Domestic Opening Day (um, make that night.) Why the additional designation? Once again, the baseball geniuses distinguished themselves by deciding to play the first two games of our national pastime in - tada, Tokyo, Japan!