Pic of the Week

The opening day crowd gathers outside the ballpark
in Cincinnati on Monday.

The long held tradition was that the very first pitch of the major league season was scheduled for Cincinnati -- this on the basis that the Queen City was the home of the first avowedly professional team. Cincy's opening day parade was an annual highlight in that city.

That tradition has been done away with by Major League Baseball; the Reds opened their season on Monday, and there were games played on Sunday. The interest of television -- ESPN gets an extra Sunday Night Game this way, often with the World Series champ (this year with both World Series teams, by coincidence) -- trumps tradition.

Which is, to an old guy like me, a sorry thing.