Opening Day is an unofficial holiday in Cincinnati. Historically, the Reds have begun each season at home, touching off a citywide celebration, where kids of all ages skip work and school to watch the parade, then head out to the ballpark.
But why do the Reds always open at home?
It is not in any official baseball rules, though it may seem that way. The Reds have started every season in Cincinnati since 1876, except for 1877, 1885 and 1966 because of rain, 1990 for a baseball lockout and 1888 when the team was scheduled to start on the road for the only time.
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It’s mostly a matter of geography and tradition, according to Reds historians John Erardi and Greg Rhodes in their book, “Opening Day.”
“Cincinnati is always the opening city because it is a Southern town and the weather has a lot to do with it,” the Cincinnati Times-Star noted in 1910.
Cincinnati was the southernmost city in the western batch of National League teams, so there was a better chance of warmer weather.
Frank Bancroft, the Reds business manager from 1892 to 1920, is credited with popularizing Opening Day, turning an accident of the schedule into a bona fide Cincinnati holiday.
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The Findlay Market Opening Day Parade became an annual institution starting in 1920.
Then, in 1935, when baseball tried to schedule the Reds to start on the road, the team pointed to 60 years of tradition to keep things as they were. Besides, general manager Larry MacPhail argued, the Reds needed the money from the annual sellout and both teams got to split the ticket sales.
Many people assume the Reds open each season because the 1869 Red Stockings were the first professional baseball team. Not so, say Erardi and Rhodes. The press began linking Opening Day to the home of professional baseball in the 1950s as a way to justify what had already been a tradition.
An Enquirer editorial proclaimed in 1949, “It is well-known fact that Cincinnati unquestionably is the best opening day city in either league – that’s why the Reds’ first game perennially is scheduled on the home lot.”
For many years, the Reds had the first game scheduled each season, before anyone else played, but that tradition has fallen by the wayside in recent years as international openers are often played several days before the rest of the season starts.
But the Reds are still the only team to nearly always open at home. That’s the way Cincinnati likes it.
Sparky Anderson once said, “It’s a holiday – a baseball holiday! Ain’t no other place in America got that!”
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