If We’re Going to Have A Sports Holiday It’s Not Opening Day

Adam Wainwright, who started yesterday's home opener for the Cardinals, loves opening day. He's attended sixteen of them, and has served as the Cards opening day pitcher six times according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He likes opening day so much he thinks it ought to be a state holiday. I think if we're going to create a holiday around a sporting event, it's not opening day.

Wainwright told the Post Dispatch's Rick Hummel that,

The governor ought to issue this as a state holiday. Let kids out of school and all kinds of stuff — that’s just my opinion.

I get Wainwright's excitement. Baseball is my sport. This year I took a vacation day to attend my second opening day. The starting lineups. The red, white and blue bunting. The pre-game ceremonies. The sunshine. It was special.

I've also been known to work a half day, park myself in front of the big screen TV, steam a couple of hot dogs, pour myself an icy cold coke and enjoy the first game of the season.

Yet opening day, in my opinion, shouldn't be a state holiday, federal holiday, or school holiday. If you're lucky enough to score tickets to opening day, take a vacation day. Got a ticket to take your kid to the game. Pull them out of school. My Mom did that when she got tickets to an opening day at Comiskey Park when I was kid.

No, if we're going to create a holiday in honor of a sporting event. I'm getting behind a holiday for Super Bowl Monday. And I'm nowhere as big a football fan as I am a baseball fan.

The Super Bowl is just this iconic sporting event. It's maybe the one sports championship that truly transcends the sport. There's the commercials, the half-time show, the pre-game show, and the trophy presentation. It's an event where we get together with family, friends, there's food, wine, beer, a party. It's one of the few television events that most of us watch in real time. And by the time it's all over it's about 8:30 or 9:00 on Saturday night.

So yeah, if we're going to create a holiday around a sporting event. Forget opening day, give us the Monday after Super Bowl Sunday off. That's a holiday I think we'd all enjoy.