Reds Relic Report: Opening Day tradition quietly crushed by MLB greed

The days of the Cincinnati Reds being the first — and sometimes only — team (other than their opponent) to play on Opening Day are long gone. The Reds open the 2026 season on Thursday, March 26 against the Boston Red Sox, but by the time Andrew Abbott throws his first pitch, approximately four other games will be in progress, and one might already be over

On Wednesday, the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants opened the 2026 season with "Opening Night" exclusively on Netflix. What? Last year, the Major League Baseball season began in a foreign country.

The Tokyo Series took center stage with a two-game series overseas between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs that took place 10 days before the rest of baseball caught up. Even this year, six teams won't even begin the season until Friday. What the heck is going on? What happened to the long-standing tradition of Opening Day?

MLB stole the Reds Opening Day tradition & they'll never give it back

MLB will tout this as their unique and cutting-edge way to "grow the game", and then turn around and claim that producing an Opening Night game on a streaming platform between two historic franchises like the Yankees and Giants is a way to introduce baseball to new and younger audiences. Miss me with all of that.

The first game of the MLB season belongs in Cincinnati. Period! End of story! MLB has thrown away tradition — something the game of baseball has been built on for generations — and cast it aside for the almighty dollar.

Most fans can probably warm up to the idea that the Reds don't need to be the only team playing on Opening Day. While that so-called tradition has been cited by Reds fans in the past, Jay Gilbert of Cincinnati Magazine recently debunked that myth. The Reds and their opponent don't have to be the only two teams playing on Opening Day every day, but they should be the first — even if they only get a five-minute head start.

Cincinnati is not just home to the first professional baseball franchise, but the first professional sports franchise in America, period. Professional baseball began in the city of Cincinnati, and it's held with great reverence by the fans and citizens of the Queen City. The pageantry of Reds Opening Day is second to none.

Sadly, MLB fails to recognize it. Commissioner Rob Manfred and his minions are more concerned with lucrative TV deals — no matter how inaccessible those broadcasts might be. And it's not just Reds fans who've been left in the dust. The Dodgers just rebranded Dodger Stadium to UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium. Tradition has given way to corporate greed. It's a sad state of affairs.

While the rest of the country may not hold MLB Opening Day great reverence, it's a holiday in the city of Cincinnati. Kids are out of school, there's a parade in the streets downtown, and somewhere amid the chaos nine guys wearing bright white uniforms with a wishbone "C" on a red cap will look to put on a show that 40,000-plus spectators will never forget.

So, to the city of Cincinnati, let MLB have their Opening Night on Netflix — yeah, the one with that ridiculous score bug that everyone already hates. Let them have their Opening Series overseas — you know, the one that starts at 6 a.m. ET. For all we know, the first game of the 2027 regular season might take place on the moon.

But Reds fans know the truth. The MLB season doesn't truly start until the Reds take the field on Opening Day.