While 30 teams celebrate their home opener, no one does it quite like the city of Cincinnati, and with Covid-19 stopping play and opening day in the Majors (for now), SI senior MLB writer Tom Verducci talks about how the city of Cincy has become the king of opening day in all of baseball, and how 2020 was very different with no game to start the season.
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00:00Thursday, March 26th, it was supposed to mark opening day of the Major League Baseball season.
00:10Of course, the start of the 2020 season has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic,
00:14leaving teams, players, and fans missing what is really considered a national holiday in
00:20the game of baseball, opening day.
00:22Let's welcome in SI Senior Writer Tom Verducci for more now.
00:25And Tom, teams around the league were supposed to open up the season on Thursday.
00:29That included the Cincinnati Reds where the city has developed into the capital of opening
00:33day.
00:34Why is that?
00:35Yeah, it's a long history.
00:38First of all, the Reds, of course, were the first chartered member of the National League,
00:41the oldest professional team.
00:43And it's been a tradition that Cincinnati opens the baseball season at home.
00:48They've done so 130 times in the last 132 years.
00:53The only other occasions were because of rain where they weren't able to start at home.
00:57So there's a parade downtown.
01:00Everybody cuts school if you're in school during the day.
01:04It's a real tradition in Cincinnati that that is an event.
01:07Now, it's not an official holiday, but in Cincinnati, it is an unofficial holiday.
01:14You wrote a story on the opening day that never was for this year, through the eyes
01:18of a Cincinnati Reds staffer.
01:21How was that staffer handling the postponement and an opening day not happening right now?
01:27Well, first of all, if the Reds are the capital of opening day, the home of opening day, then
01:32the Stowe family is the first family of opening day.
01:37Rick Stowe and his father, Bernie Stowe, had been with the organization going back to 1947.
01:45Rick now has taken over for his late dad in terms of running the clubhouse and equipment
01:49for the Cincinnati Reds.
01:51It's a family tradition.
01:53Rick's brother, Mark, also helps run the clubhouse and equipment processes for the Reds.
01:58So the Reds are a team that really is ingrained in the DNA of the Stowe family.
02:04So for them especially, it hits home.
02:06Listen, it hits everybody, anybody who's a baseball fan, knowing that Thursday was supposed
02:10to be opening day and it's the opening day that it's not.
02:12But in Cincinnati, and especially to the Stowe family, it's a huge deal.
02:17Now, obviously, it's the opening of a season for everybody, but for the Stowe family, it's
02:23about getting the equipment in order.
02:25As Rick told me, once that national anthem is played and everybody's out there on the
02:29line, then those guys can breathe because it's a lot of work to get a team ready for
02:33opening day.
02:35Hopefully that work doesn't go for naught as we will hopefully have an opening day.
02:40Let me ask you, Tom, you're a baseball guy through and through.
02:42I'm a huge baseball fan.
02:44There are fans across the country.
02:46They're depressed on opening day.
02:47That is not happening.
02:49Give us some advice for those fans out there that are missing opening day.
02:54Yeah, it's really hard.
02:56There was a lot to look forward to.
02:58You had Garrett Cole making his debut for the Yankees against the Baltimore Orioles.
03:02What would that strikeout number have been?
03:05Anthony Rendon starting for the Angels.
03:07And of all places, Houston, his hometown.
03:10And of course, all the pomp and circumstance in Cincinnati.
03:12You're going to have to wait for all those things to happen.
03:16Hopefully at some point during the course of this season, we do have a season.
03:19And there will be an opening day.
03:20It'll just be delayed.
03:22In the meantime, the best advice I can give you is make sure you take some time to watch
03:26some reruns on opening day.
03:28Make it a virtual opening day, right?
03:30Get yourself some popcorn, peanuts, and Cracker Jacks.
03:33Sit down in front of the tube and pop on an old game and feel like you're at the ballpark
03:38or cutting school even.
03:40It's not the real thing.
03:41There's nothing like the real thing, I think, in all professional sports.
03:44I think it's ingrained in the fabric of this country as much as any one professional event
03:49on this calendar.
03:50But you can pretend it is.
03:52It's not the real thing.
03:53But do the best that you can.
03:54And really say your prayers that soon enough we have the real thing.
03:58Great advice.
03:59Hopefully we can kick things off and find an old Cincinnati Reds opening day to watch
04:04on TV.
04:05And hopefully we'll have a 2020 opening day at some point later this year.
04:10SI senior writer Tom Verducci.
04:12Thanks Tom.
04:13Thank you.