Opening Day just didn’t look the same to me this year. That could be because I was in Cincinnati.
Opening Day as you may know used to be a big deal in the Queen City, where they honored longevity by giving the Reds the first crack at starting each new season. That tradition went away some time ago but it was still a festive occasion, particularly outside the stadium before the game started. Once it did, all the energy vanished and the Reds went down easy.
I contemplated wearing my Tom Seaver Mets jersey to honor the former Cincinnati great but it wasn’t about me. The Reds’ starter, Andrew Abbott, wore 41 instead.
We sat just to the 3rd base side of the famous notch or whatever its called, in the 400s. It was my first tip to that stadium and will remark the stands along the first base side of the notch are laid out almost exactly like Citi Field. They have a dumb steamboat in the outfield where we have a fake bridge, and we have more outfield seating overall. On the third base side of the notch the 400 section is twice is deep and the 500 has fewer rows.
The game, a rematch of the 1975 World Series, went to Boston 3-0.
We were getting lunch outside the stadium when we learned that the Mets had somehow knocked Paul Skenes out of the box in the first inning. I was certain that was going to be a typical low scoring opening day like 3-0, 301, or 2-1 for either team but baseball can surprise you.
As noted Carson Benge made the team and changed his uni No. to 3; Richard Lovelady survived the relief pitching hunger games and got a new number, 55. Here’s to home games in 2026.
The tradition of the Reds always playing the first game of the season actually is a myth. The following is an excerpt from a story in Cincinnati magazine:
The Cincinnati Reds almost never played the only baseball game on Opening Day. There is no long or short timespan anywhere of the team’s repeated exclusivity—not even two years in a row. If you weep over the loss of our stand-alone Opening Days, stop.
I have closely researched every Opening Day since the year 1903, the first year of a World Series between recognizable American and National leagues. From that season until the final time in 1994, the Reds had Opening Day all to themselves a total of six times. That’s six out of 91. None of them were back to back. Three of them happened only because another game somewhere else got rained out. This means that Major League Baseball intentionally planned a standalone Opening Day game for the Cincinnati Reds a grand total of three times: 1973, 1981, and 1994.
I don’t know how the myth got started, and I don’t blame anyone for never questioning it. It’s powerful and comforting, like George Washington and the cherry tree. If you’re someone who always believed it, think of the contrary evidence you’ve had to ignore. You enjoyed a Reds-only day in 1981, but over the next 13 years did you not notice all the other Opening Day games played? There were 67 of them, all right there on the sports pages. Well, that just means our exclusivity was before 1981!
Thanks for that Stu. I wouldn’t doubt that’s what you found and as you say there’s a lot of value in the myth. Also it gave me an excuse to see an old friend and check off another stadium. AS I recall it, the Reds wouldn’t necessarily get Opening day to themselves but the earliest start that day, I could have been clearer on that. But barely matters.
I hope to get to GABP as well. Looks like a fine place to see a game.
Tyrone Taylor switching to #28