On Friday, April 6, nine Major League Baseball teams, including the Baltimore Orioles, will play season-opening baseball games. On the same day, countless Christians and Jews will mark solemn and holy religious observances, Good Friday and the start of Passover.
The decision to schedule season-opening games on Good Friday is just the latest example of a growing disregard for the deeply-held and widely-practiced faith traditions of the people of our great Nation.
One team, the Cincinnati Reds, reportedly requested to have its game moved from Friday to Thursday in apparent response to public outcry, a request MLB rightly granted.
How regrettable it is that Major League Baseball and the Orioles apparently care so little about the deeper loyalties of so many of its fans.
In the words of John Cardinal O’Connor, who in 1998 criticized the decision to play baseball on Good Friday, “Playing on Good Friday…is cheap and cheapens our culture, no matter how big the box-office receipts.”