MLB's 'Opening Day' should be declared a national holiday

Blue Wahoos Stadium in Pensacola, Fla.

Today (Thursday) should be a national holiday.

Today marks the official start of the Major League Baseball season from coast to coast and for the first time in recent memory all 30 teams will start their seasons on the same day. Usually the season begins with a couple of games on the first day with the rest of the teams starting the following day.

The Atlanta Braves are scheduled to open their season with a six-game homestand that will begin today at 3:10 p.m. when they take on their National League East rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies. They’ll face the Phillies tomorrow and will wrap up the three-game set on Saturday.

The Braves will have the day off on Sunday, but will face another divisional opponent, the Washington Nationals, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. They’ll have the following Thursday off as they set off on a three-city, 10-day road trip in which they’ll play the Rockies, the Nationals and the Cubs.

Nothing really beats watching the Braves play in person, but I also like watching them on TV and listening to broadcasts of their games on the radio, especially if I’m driving somewhere while the game’s on. Currently, there are seven FM stations in Alabama that broadcast Braves games and the closest one to Evergreen is WKNU 106.3 in Brewton. Folks in the western part of the county, in the Repton area, might be able to catch the game on WJDB 95.5 out of Thomasville.

If you don’t want to drive all the way to Atlanta to watch the Braves, we’ve got a pretty decent brand of professional baseball a lot closer to home. Montgomery, Mobile and Pensacola all have Double-A minor league teams that compete in the Southern League.

All three of these teams will open their seasons on Thurs., April 5. The Montgomery Biscuits, an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, will open their season that evening against the Biloxi Shuckers, an affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. The Mobile BayBears, an affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels, will host the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, that same evening. Both games are set to start at 6:35 p.m.

I’ve been to these types of games in Montgomery and Mobile, and they’re a lot of fun. The Biscuits play at Riverwalk Stadium in downtown Montgomery, and the BayBears play at Hank Aaron Stadium, just off of I-65 in Mobile. Both of those stadiums are great places to watch a game, and I’m always jumping to go to either one when the chance presents itself.

However, I’ve never been to watch the Pensacola team play in their stadium, Blue Wahoos Stadium, which is relatively new. Situated on West Main Street on Pensacola Bay, this stadium opened in 2012 and is also the home stadium for the University of West Florida’s football team. The Wahoos open their 2018 season on the road, and they’re not scheduled to play a home game until April 11.

In the end, when it comes to red letter days on the annual sports calendar, it’s hard to beat Major League Baseball’s Opening Day. If you like watching baseball being played at its highest level by some of the best athletes on the planet, you’ve got a lot to look forward to this year as the long season gets its start today.