TODAY IS
SUNDAY, APRIL 03, 2022
TRUMP’S FOUR-HUNDRED-AND-THIRTY-EIGHTH DAY OUT-OF-OFFICE
AND WHAT KIND OF RECEPTION WOULD ILLEGITIMATE RESIDENT JOKE BIDEN* GET THROWING OUT THE FIRST PITCH FOR THE SPECIAL OLYMPICS?

This Sunday in America… at the Church of The Compassionate Conservative, Beloved Whistleblower Publisher, the Right-Wing Reverend Charles Foster Kane was asking his Political Parishioners to Pray for Pastimes, even though Major League Baseball’s Opening Day is coming this week. The new season kicks off Thursday, April 1 as the league returns to a full, 162-game schedule. All 30 MLB teams will be in action on April 1, and there are plenty of intriguing matchups on the Opening Day schedule.

Opening Day in Cincinnati is much more than a baseball game, it’s an event. After 2020’s cancellation, it’s been two years since the Reds had a traditional Opening Day game (they did beat the Tigers in 2020’s 60-game regular-season home opener though).

Major League Baseball is back. after MLB and the MLB Players’ Association struck a new collective bargaining agreement that ended the owner-initiated locked out at 99 days. It is the second-longest work stoppage in baseball history behind the 1994-95 players’ strike (232 days). 

A 162-game season will be played in 2022, though it will begin a week later than usual. The games that are missed will be made up later in the season as part of doubleheaders, off-days, etc. Here’s a look at MLB’s new post-lockout calendar:  

And once again, 2022 Reds fans will be able to forget Cincinnati’s long-discarded honor of always getting to host “Baseball’s Opening Game” every year, just because the first fully professional baseball team was the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings (ten men on salary for eight months from March 15 to November 15).

Whistleblower Senior Spoiled Sports Editor Andy FurBall says the Cincinnati Red Stockings won their first game on May 4, 1869, by a score of 45-9. They then went on to go 57-1 (wins-tie), touring the U.S. playing teams from Boston to San Francisco, something that had not been done before.

FurBall says the next year, they won another 24 straight games before finally losing 8-7 in 11 innings against the Brooklyn Atlantics on June 14.  After their first loss, attendance declined substantially and they were disbanded the following year despite only losing six games all season. Iconic Reds former Sportscaster Marty Brennaman remembers it well.