Former MLB shortstop Ozzie “the Wizard of Oz” Smith has petitioned the  White House to make MLB’s opening day a national holiday. Smith’s request comes in the form of a Budweiser commercial. This commercial plays on the emotions that baseball fans experience as opening day draws nearer; and Spring Training draws to a close.

Here is the commercial:

In the video, Smith talks about how  it would only take 100,000 signatures to make this happen; in reality, all those signatures do is make sure that the President looks over the petition and then makes a ruling on it. It is highly unlikely that President Obama would grant the petitioners what they want, even though he is a baseball fan.*

Outside of the fact that sports should never dictate what the federal government does, MLB has made figuring out what day opening day is difficult. After all, the Dodgers and Diamondbacks start regular season play in Australia with a two game series on March 22nd, and 23rd; with the rest of MLB starting play a couple of weeks later.

This is simply a genius marketing/advertising stunt by Budweiser to continue to promote themselves to baseball fans. And, despite the fact that beer at baseball games is ridiculously expensive, it is a campaign that should be most effective.

*Throwing a bucket of cold water on humor is my specialty…deal with it. 

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