Why Reds lost their Opening Day schedule special role in MLB history
Cincinnati used to have the spotlight.
Why Reds lost their Opening Day schedule special role in MLB history originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . The Cincinnati Reds used to have the MLB Opening Day spotlight all to themselves.
For much of the 20th century, the first team to play each season was the Reds. It was a tradition that took hold and never really went away. These days, though, the schedule doesn't normally work like that.
That includes this season, when the first game of the MLB season is a standalone game on Wednesday night: Yankees at Giants, broadcast on Netflix. The Reds will open the season Thursday at 4:10 p. m.
ET at home against the Boston Red Sox . Why don't the Reds play first on Opening Day anymore? MLB mostly went away from this tradition for broadcast and attention reasons.