March 26th is Mets Opening Day this year. Can it get any earlier? Or any colder? Teams know this and now if there’s a player who has a hint of an injury, there’s very little chance you’ll see them start the baseball season.
MLB cheapened Opening Day years ago with the Sunday Night game. The Reds used to get the first game out of tradition and Bud Selig ruined that. Now we have March baseball and fans aren’t going to be thrilled when they see who’s not in the lineup.
Here are some of the missing players with minor injuries that could have been healed for April baseball:
Yankees:
Giancarlo Stanton
Aaron Judge
Mets:
Yoenis Cespedes (just a hunch)
Phillies:
Andrew McCutchen
Jay Bruce (just a hunch)
Here’s the full list:
http://www.espn.com/mlb/injuries
Here’s a list of all of the day-to-day injuries. It’s probably double what it used to be and teams won’t force the players to come back early. The weather will be cold and possibly damp, and teams don’t want to risk injuries because the contracts are so big.
Average temps for March 26th in New York are 33 to 41, is that baseball weather? 2005 Opening Day was on April 4th. Those temps are 42-51 on average not usually going over 59. That’s a lot better, but money got in the way here and the fans now get a watered-down lineup on baseball’s most glorious day.
I think MLB figures fans are so excited to see baseball that the fact that 30% of their lineup isn’t what they’ll see a few weeks later isn’t that important, but it is when teams jack up the price for this day.
Fans deserve to see the best and the way the calendar is set there’s no way they can. The NBA and NHL have rules about how many starters need to be in a lineup for preseason, I fear the MLB might have to look at this to start the regular season!
It’s hard to kill baseball, history has proven that, but all of these little things add up until the fans reach their breaking point and decide to just stay away and watch on television or not follow the sport at all. This sport should worry about that heading into the next decade. Do they? I’m not so sure.
