Let's play ... tomorrow

Pete Rose once said of baseball's opening day, "It's like Christmas, except it's warmer."

Not so much this year, Charlie Hustle.

As I look out my window, it's snowing -- pretty hard. And then I scan the MLB schedule and see there will be opening day games on Thursday and Friday in cities like Cincinnati, New York, Chicago and Cleveland.

This should be an adventure.

Here's another gem from Paul O'Neill after an opening day snowstorm at Yankee Stadium: "When I saw Santa Claus in the first row, I knew it was going to be a strange day."

Baseball will open in 15 cities over the next two days. In nine stadiums, the projected gametime temperature is 53 degrees or below. It should be about 42 in Cleveland, 43 in New York and 44 in Washington.

That is not baseball weather.

I will give the MLB some credit in that the domes in Toronto and Tampa Bay (as if St. Petersburg needs one) are being utilized for the opening weekend. Additionally, openers at Los Angeles, Texas, Florida and Oakland are good ideas.

On the other hand, teams from Anaheim and San Diego (where it will be warm) are traveling to opposite ends of Missouri for openers to be played in the low 50s. I have to imagine even if you asked the Royals and Cardinals players, they'd take opening on the road in southern California.

I'm not really sure what to say about this except that it just feels too darn cold for baseball. Is there a solution? Perhaps more doubleheaders or fewer games would help, but no one seems to want to go that route.

I guess we'll just continue with baseball as a cold weather sport.

Now that the Twins have an outdoor stadium, I just can't wait until they make it back to a World Series. If you think April in Chicago is cold for baseball, just wait until we have November baseball in Minneapolis.