In An Act Of Self-Sabotage, Major League Baseball Schedules Opening Day The Same Day As The NCAA Sweet Sixteen

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Today is Opening Day. Other than family, pets and select friends, I love baseball more than anything in the world. I look forward to this day from the second the last out is made in the World Series. Everything Opening Day represents is perfect: hope and optimism, summer on the horizon and that daily dependable thing we have to enjoy until the beginning of November.

Opening Day can be enjoyed by even the most casual of baseball fans. So, why the fuck does Rob Manfred feel the need to schedule it the same day that the Sweet 16 kicks off?

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Here's the good news: most games from the day should be over by the time BYU/Alabama tips off at 7:09. 11 of the 14 games start at 4:15 or earlier. I must admit that's also an optimistic take. There's a good chance that the end of some of the nine games that start at/around 4 PM might have big end of the game moments that will get lost when college basketball begins for the night.

The other part of this scheduling disaster is that it fucks up what MLB had planned for an evening showcase. I assume that the "thought" process was that ESPN would air this great Blake Snell/Tarik Skubal matchup at 7 PM in a standalone spotlight. Well, standalone except for the giant basketball tournament that averaged over 9 MILLION VIEWERS last week! Oh, they also scheduled two more games that night that start at 10 Eastern…the same time that two games (including Duke/Arizona) will be going on.

SOURCE - Through Sunday’s second-round games, the men’s games have averaged 9.4 million viewers across the four networks, the highest mark for the opening weekend since 1993. There are a couple of caveats there, as CBS was the sole broadcaster for the tournament until 2011 and Nielsen didn’t include out-of-home ratings in its totals until a few years ago. Nonetheless, the tournament is up from 9.04 million viewers at the same point last year, a gain of 4 percent. The high so far is 15.3 million for Sunday’s late afternoon window, led by Kentucky’s victory over Illinois. 

I think a big part of happiness in life is knowing who you are. I was never going to be an NFL linebacker no matter how hard I tried. I have shoulders so scrawny, they could cut glass. Understand what your limitations might be. Why is it that Major League Baseball can never seem to understand theirs? It's not 1954 anymore. Baseball doesn't just get to sit at the head of the table just for showing up to dinner. They aren't the biggest game in town. 

The MLB can have Opening Day be whatever day they want it to be. Why not Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of this week? Or those same days next week? Why set it up so the first FOUR days of your season get overshadowed? I understand the times won't always be an exact conflict but I think there is value in owning the day. If you can, be the top sports story of the day. 

Opening Day is a positive thing. It's rare that you can schedule a day far in advance that you know will make people happy. It's rarer still to then plan that day when you'll overshadowed by dinnertime.