Budweiser, Ozzie Smith hope to make MLB Opening Day a national holiday

Children playing hooky from school to catch an Opening Day baseball game could be a thing of the past if Budweiser has its way.

Budweiser, the official beer of Major League Baseball, said it wants to make Opening Day a national holiday. The beer company said in a YouTube video it has received more than 100,000 signatures, enough to get a formal response from the White House.

"The White House has heard us," former St. Louis Cardinal Shortstop and spokesman for the campaign Ozzie Smith said in the video. "Let's make Opening Day a holiday."

Other retired players and former managers are joining Smith in Budweiser's "Make Opening Day a Holiday" campaign, a Budweiser spokesman said. Budweiser has released a video on its YouTube page with former baseball players talking about what Opening Day means to them.

Among those supporters are former Oakland Athletic Eric Byrnes and former Cincinnati Red Sean Casey.

It is fitting that a Red is featured in a YouTube video because for many years, the first pitch of the season was traditionally in Cincinnati.


 

Budweiser is not stopping there. They are also releasing a limited-edition San Francisco Giants Budweiser can, one of 23 MLB teams featured.