Opening Day still pretty much the celebration it always has been

To say that baseball's Opening Day is a national holiday is understating it. International holiday would be more like it.

Consider the beleaguered Montreal Expos, who went out of business because they couldn't draw.

On Opening Day, April 3, 2000, they attracted 51,249. The next night, they were down to 12,143, and the night after that, they were back to a typical 8,867.

No, it wasn't the downtrodden Expos the Canadian fans had come to see that first night. It was an occasion so special that it gets people to do what they don't ordinarily do.

Even Joe DiMaggio, never one to share his reflections, once was moved to say: "You always get a special kick on Opening Day no matter how many you go through. You look forward to it like a birthday party when you're a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen."

Opening Day is such a cherished commodity that Major League Baseball has packaged it, franchised it, sold it and exported it to Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico and, now annually, Sunday night. The Yankees-Red Sox game Sunday night is part of the new tradition, an opener before the openers that began with baseball's contract with ESPN in 1994. It has stolen some thunder from the folksy Opening Day parade in Cincinnati and the presidential first pitch in Washington. (President Obama will mark the 100th anniversary of that tradition Monday.)

Still, judging from the full houses, decorative bunting and excitement, Opening Day still is something of a civic holiday. And it is that way mostly because it always was. Baseball's soul always has seemed to yearn for it. The notation "Commencement of the Season" was on the official scoresheet of a game April 10, 1846, a game umpired by Alexander Cartwright, the man credited with having invented baseball.

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Credit the Cincinnati Reds, the de facto godfathers of Opening Day. Baseball people assume that the Reds were given the honor of hosting the first game (before the ESPN Sunday night era) because they were the first professional team in 1869. Team historian Greg Rhodes wrote that there is no evidence for that. He suggested the reasoning was that Cincinnati was the southernmost city and its field usually was in the best shape (notwithstanding 1877, when the rain was so bad that players had to take a barge to Louisville for the opener).

The Reds were the most successful in promoting Opening Day during the National League-American Association battles of the 1880s. A grassroots parade sprung up. It was adopted by shopkeepers at Findlay Market in 1920 and continues to this day.

The parade boomed when it was rerouted through the heart of town in 1970. When Marge Schott bought the team in 1984, she used influence at the Cincinnati Zoo to have animals included. As former Reds player Lenny Harris once said, "There are a lot of good Opening Days, but it's tough to top those elephants in Cincinnati."

Washington always could hold its own, what with the president making the ceremonial first pitch. Baseball enthusiast William Howard Taft (unlike predecessor Teddy Roosevelt, who didn't consider the sport manly enough) began the tradition, tossing to Senators pitcher Walter Johnson in 1910 (Johnson followed with a shutout of the Athletics).

Harry Truman was the most bipartisan, throwing one pitch lefty and another righty in 1950. Vice President Hubert Humphrey's pitch was delayed in 1968 because the opener was postponed twice by rioting after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Opening Day has broadened America's horizons: Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947 and Frank Robinson became the first African-American manager in 1975 (and hit his record eighth Opening Day homer).

Opening Day has broadened baseball's horizons: The Yankees introduced uniform numbers (1929), San Francisco's Seals Stadium hosted the first West Coast game (1958), Ron Blomberg became the first designated hitter (1973) and Hank Aaron tied Babe Ruth (1974).

Opening Day is quirky and personal and poignant: One-armed outfielder Pete Gray debuted (1945); former catcher Charlie Bennett, whose legs were amputated in an 1894 train accident, threw the first pitch at every Detroit opener from 1896 to 1927; Fenway Park's Green Monster was introduced (1934, three months after the original fence burned down).

For one day every year, every player feels like a kid. That includes a Yankees veteran who was known as "Old Reliable." Tommy Henrich once said: "Believe you me, it takes a young player a long, long time to get over those Opening Day butterflies."

And every Opening Day is when teams get to prove what they had said - "We'll be ready when the bell rings." Stan Isaacs, the former Newsday columnist, used to bring a cowbell and let it peal on the first pitch.