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Baltimore Orioles: An MLB tradition like Thanksgiving?

By Domenic A. Vadala

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Should the Baltimore Orioles and MLB adopt a Thanksgiving-like tradition, or do they already have one?

Were the Baltimore Orioles a topic of conversation at your Thanksgiving gathering yesterday? They certainly were at mine! Hey Domenic, are the O’s going to keep Davis? Hey Domenic, any chance they get a pitcher? For the record, it’s when people stop asking me questions like this that I’ll start getting nervous.

Courtesy of Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

But that aside, I hope that everyone out there reading this had a great Thanksgiving Day. Mine was spent with my family of course, but also watching things such as Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and of course the NFL – who incidentally has done a great job of ingraining itself into the very fabric of the Thanksgiving holiday. And I don’t say that sarcastically, because Thanksgiving wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without football.

So here’s an interesting question; could or should MLB try and do something similar? The NBA is starting to slowly take over Christmas, which speaking for myself is something with which I’m totally on board. Last year’s Christmas was pretty great for me; I had my parents and my two sisters at my house for a late-afternoon dinner. While I prepared the day’s tomato sauce, I watched the Washington Wizards (“my team”) go to town on the New York Knicks.

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    • But I digress; is there anyway that MLB could hammer themselves into the hearts and minds of Americans for a holiday in similar fashion? First off, the answer is no – not at least in the manner that the NFL and NBA have done. Obviously the time period known as “the holidays” don’t fall during the MLB season. And there’s nothing that baseball or anyone else is going to do about that.

    However I would submit that MLB already has an effect of that magnitude – albeit in a different manner. First off Opening Day in baseball is a celebration unlike any other. In that sense you almost have the opposite effect with a sport creating a de facto holiday. However keep in mind that three fairly large celebrations (Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day) all fall during the course of the MLB season.

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    While these are three very traditional American holidays, all of which represent various stages of summertime, they aren’t Thanksgiving or Christmas. But perhaps in a de facto manner as much as anything else, MLB owns all three of these days. ESPN usually has various games on these holidays, and the entire league seemingly takes on a typical Sunday-type of feel.

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    That’s all I’ve got, folks. It literally is! Maybe you can also throw St. Patrick’s Day in there with most MLB teams wearing green uniforms during spring training, but now we’re reaching. However the fact is that if you’re watching sports on Memorial Day, the 4th of July, and Labor Day, you’re probably watching baseball.

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