Skipping Work For Baseball’s Holiday Has Been Postponed
Today would have been Major League Baseball’s Opening Day. A yearly ritual more celebrated than many other holidays, which in my opinion signifies the true arrival of spring. An anthropocene era festival of renewal. Phallic bats instead of phallic maypoles, the Philly Phanatic instead of the Easter Bunny, and a host of other parallel metaphors I’m too lazy to write out.
But, there won’t be an Opening Day today for rather obvious reasons. It might be midsummer, or later, before we finally get to see baseball return. That doesn’t mean we can’t take a moment to appreciate the working class tradition that has always been a part of the annual celebration.
That’s right, we’re talking playing hooky to see a ballgame.
Since its inception baseball has been a constant source of consternation for business and bosses alike. It’s so woven into the fabric of the game one of the most famous brands of baseball equipment, the Louisville Slugger, was born of skipping work to take in 9 innings. In 1884, the son of a woodworker skipped out on his dad’s workshop to take in a game. After a horrendous game by the titular Louisville Slugger, Pete Browning, the young Bud Hillerich pitched him the idea of a new bat.
During the late 19th and early 20th century farmers and businesses in the rural US would often shut down, whether they wanted to or not, when barnstorming teams came through to play a game. Around the turn of the century, business owners in cities all over the country would plead with team owners to reschedule games because so many workers simply wouldn’t turn up when there was a ballgame to see.
People have been attempting to make Opening Day a local or national holiday for decades. Likely because every year there’s a rash of articles detailing if, why, and how you should skip work or school to take in the national pastime.
From the stodgiest columnist to the rowdiest working fan everyone can agree that the norms around work simply don’t apply when it comes to baseball. A game that has no respect for those things we’re told matter most. Baseball takes as long as it takes. There’s no clock. No time limit. People may point to these things as negatives, or claim it makes the game boring, but the moments of stillness and inactivity, the leisurely pace of the competition are in no small way a rebellion against the constant crushing drumbeat of speed and efficiency we’re expected to match in our day to day.
So, even if you aren’t a fan let’s hear it for the Opening Day that wasn’t, and the Opening Day that we hope to soon see. Let’s hear it for the Ferris Bueller’s, and the guy using a t-shirt as a balaclava so nobody can recognize him at the day-game. Let’s hear it for the kids skipping school and the parents skipping work to take them. Let’s hear it for every person who’d rather be at the ballgame than work.
And let’s hear it for the brave frontline workers risking their lives to make future Opening Days a possibility. Because of them, this year we might still get to Play Ball.
Jean Krill is is the co-editor and co-founder of Zero Balance. His writing navigates the many disparate visions of a radically better future.