This year's Major League Baseball Opening Day schedule just feels strange. The new schedule this year just doesn't feel the same, and although the games are technically starting earlier in the year, it feels like it is starting later.
But before I elaborate those claims, let's discuss some brief history on Opening Day. Historically, the first Opening Day pitch was held in Cincinnati, the home of the oldest franchise in the MLB. They would have the first game, and then everyone else would follow (to this day, they always open up at home). Then the first major change to Opening Day happened in this past decade where the team that won the World Series would open up on ESPN the Sunday Night before everyone else.
This year there was a major shift as the Opening Day is scheduled for a Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, there will be a semi-slate of games, with the night cap being the World Champion Giants against the Dodgers. Then everyone else joins in the fray on Friday.
While Opening Day this year is early (March 31st for some teams), it just feels later, and I think I figured out why. I'm so used to Opening Day being at the start of the week, that the final wait for Opening Day was replaced by the weekend. It's hard to to be completely impatient for opening day when you can distract yourself with the weekend. But this year, at the end of the week (and for me personally, the day after two Astrophysics Midterms) it just feels like forever away, although it's only a two days away.
Oh well, it's all relative anyway.
