Early spring. Flowers are blooming, the sun is shining and groundskeepers are chalking up the baselines for the beginning of baseball season.
Opening Day is regarded by many — including myself — as the best day of the year on the sports calendar, followed closely by Sunday at the Masters and Super Bowl Sunday.
I was fortunate enough to see my first Opening Day in person at Chase Field on Monday.
It was an amazing event, but Opening Day is not what it used to be.
The Diamondbacks entered Opening Day with an 0-2 record gathered in Australia when they lost a pair to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
While promoting baseball in overseas markets is important, meaningful games should not be taken away to the other side of the world. Playing exhibition games on foreign soil is an amazing concept. But by having a team's first games start at around 1 a.m. in their local market, it takes away from viewership and the buzz that should surround the start of a season.
The pageantry of Opening Day has been bastardized by Major League Baseball because of the fact that there are so many first days of the season as opposed to just the one.
So, MLB, take regular season games out of Australia, play exhibition games overseas, keep the real games in North America and keep Opening Day sacred. Please.
Reach the columnist at mtonis@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Tonis_The_Tiger
