My first longer informational article from a few weeks ago about cancelled commemoratives seemed to be really well enjoyed. I figured I might as well write some more articles until baseball is back, and until there’s more new commemorative baseball news and action.
I was considering what to write about, and someone brought up a question to me about Opening Day baseballs, and how I should write an article about them (thanks Rob!). It led me to think about how complicated they are and how there is not a lot of rock solid information out there. Even I am unsure about a few things regarding them!
This article will not cover international series openers, or cover commems used for inaugural games at ballparks, but at the bottom I will write some notes about them. I am just going to stick to league wide Opening Day balls for this article. If there’s enough interest, I will do a standalone post about both/either of those topics.
Honorable Mentions
A little bit of background to start; let’s get some outliers out of the way! The first ever baseball commemorating the opening of a season to my knowledge would technically be the “Cowhide Baseball First Use” ball.
I consider these the first commemoratives ever used, but I am sure since they are not logo baseballs others do not. These are extremely rare. The NL ones coincidentally were used in the game Hank Aaron hit home run 714 to tie Babe Ruth’s record. It is interesting to note that they are two very similar balls, but with different ink colors and one made by Reach, and one made by Spalding. Very strange.
Here’s another outlier. In 1997 on Opening Day, the National League and American League each used their own baseball to honor the 50th Anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier.
What a phenomenal logo! It is huge, has Jackie’s signature, it just all comes together well. The two leagues came together and used a fantastic logo. This was the first commemorative baseball used MLB wide by all teams. Now, lets get to the more traditional stuff.
2000 Opening Day Millennium Silver
The first league wide Opening Day baseball was also the first usage of the “Major League Baseball”, as after 1999 MLB switched from using NL and AL balls to unifying under one.
Every Opening Day game in 2000 used these silver inked baseballs with the year 2000 above the MLB logo. If my math is right, 5 commemoratives were used in the 2000 season with silver stamping. Something about MLB wanting to ring in the new millennium.
2001 Opening Day AL 100th Anniversary
In 2001, the American League was celebrating its 100th anniversary. To commemorate this, they used an awesome commemorative baseball with the American League logo.
What a great looking baseball, and that red ink too! 5 commemorative baseballs in 2001 used red ink. MLB must have had an affinity for red that year! Who knows. But… it was not the NL’s 100th anniversary, so what did the NL use?
2001 Opening Day NL
Well, it looks like MLB did not want the NL feeling left out!
A very aesthetically pleasing baseball, and one that I know nearly nothing about. I don’t believe there’s much more of a story here beside the fact that MLB did not want one league using an Opening Day ball, and the other to not. This is a very tough ball to find.
2002 Opening Day American Flag
This ball is a masterpiece. I will let it speak for itself.
MLB got really patriotic post 9/11 with the 2002 season. They used a similar ball with similar stitching and logo (but with a full flag instead of the MLB hybrid flag) for Memorial Day, July 4th, and September 11th. This ball with the American flag MLB logo looks fantastic alongside the blue and red alternating stitching. What I’ve heard is this ball was meant for first pitch uses only, but ended up getting used in some games. I would love the entire story. We’ll touch on something like this a bit later.
2004 Opening Day
You may ask why I skipped 2003. Well, you should ask MLB why they skipped 2003.
Starting in 2004, MLB first used Opening Day baseballs somewhat similar to the ones MLB has used for years now, to present day. Here’s where things get slightly complicated: I believe 2004 was the first season that home openers were meant to use Opening Day baseballs, not just the actual team’s first game of the season. I’ll address this now. This did not always go to plan, I have seen multiple examples up to a few years ago of home openers not using the Opening Day baseball for that year, and I chalk it up to some sort of mistake or misunderstanding or something else similar.
2005 Opening Day
The MLB logo, the year, and even the month! This ball has it all, along with a huge logo.
Not really much to it, we’re in the simple portion of Opening Day baseballs, as these are not too complicated and not too hard to find.
2006 Opening Day
In 2006 is where we first see something that has become a standard for Opening Day logos since. Bunting has been in every Opening Day logo since this one, and it has become the centerpiece of the Opening Day logo as well.
2006 was also the first true repeat design, as the same exact logo with only the year changing was used for multiple years in a row. It is a pretty solid-looking logo, and gets the job done.
2007-2010 Opening Day
The 2007-2010 balls are identical to 2006, beside the year changing on each of them.
Now here’s where things get extremely tricky! Remember when I said the 2002 Opening Day baseball was meant for first pitches? Well, 2007-2010 Opening Day baseballs were supposed to be the same. I know for a fact a few 2009 and 2010 slipped into game, as there are MLB authenticated examples of them, shown below.
I really don’t know the full story, it could be that clubhouse attendants thought they were meant to be used in the game, but honestly no real leads on this. I also have no confirmed examples from 2007/2008 beside rumors. If you have any knowledge on this, or any examples from those years I just mentioned, please email me! This was a really weird thing, and I am really not sure why MLB went to this after 2006 and many other years of Opening Day balls. Someday I would like an answer to that question, and many others I have about similar stuff.
2013 Opening Day
Once again, a gap in Opening Day balls of any type. Nothing produced for retail or game use in 2011 or 2012. I doubt there is any reasoning for it, but I still must ask, why?
Well, in 2013 they came back and refreshed the logo! Still got the bunting, and the year, and the MLB logo, but 2013 adds the word April on the left side, before this only used in 2005. I think it is a pretty fantastic logo.
2014 Opening Day
2014 brought some subtle tweaks to the previous year’s logo.
The font is almost identical, but seems slightly compacted, and the O is more circular. The bunting looks the exact same, and the MLB logo was moved to above the “Opening Day”. There’s no April mention like in 2013, because the season opened up in March, and some home openers were in April. I think I like the 2013 logo better.
2015-2017 Opening Day
In 2015 the next version of the Opening Day logo debuted
I overall like this logo a lot, its compact, has the year, has the MLB logo, the iconic bunting of course. It looks slightly cartoonish with that font used for “Opening Day” but I really like the use of space and filling the space around the words with ink. Only quarrel of mine is the year is a bit small, but that was also a similar thing in 13/14.
I do not know how much I love the repetition of a logo ball for a few years in a row, but it is something MLB clearly likes doing. Could be worse, and I would take it over no ball.
2018 Opening Day
Switch it up. In 2018 the most recent and still used logo for Opening Day debuted.
The MLB logo, the year, the bunting, the Opening Day wordmark are all there. I do not really love the digital look of the bunting, it’s computerized and looks nothing like real bunting, but I can see how some would like it. Opening day font is solid, compact, reminds me of the last version’s font.
2019 Opening Day Baseball
As if it were put into a Willy Wonka shrinking machine, in 2019 the Opening Day logo and all others got smaller.
It is the same exact logo, except for the year changing of course, but the size change is drastic. In 2019, MLB made logos get pretty small as a regulation, and design and visibility of smaller details suffered because of it. That 2019 is SO tiny. Every commem in 2019 was pretty small. You can find these here, on eBay.
2020 Opening Day
The last Opening Day baseball (for now).
I actually expected this logo to be slightly bigger since it seemed that MLB was making logos larger than 2019 for 2020. These were used in fan-less games on the delayed Opening Day (although not by every team). You can find it here, on eBay.
Conclusion
I have a few extra notes I want to point out about Opening Day balls. One is that when an inaugural game commemorative or something similar like that, a commemorative that isn’t OD meant just for the first game of the season, the Opening Day commemorative does NOT get used the next game, or at all for that team. BUT! When a team is using a season long commemorative, the Opening Day commemorative still gets used, not the season long. This usually makes the second home game the start of season long commems getting used. Starting in 2021 and still in 2022, there has not been a commemorative for Opening Day, but I heard they may make a return next season.
Share your favorite Opening Day baseball in the comments! I’m curious to hear which are all of your favorites.
I hope you enjoyed this article, it took a lot of work to put together and its the second one I have done. Until baseball returns, you can enjoy some of the other ones on my site while we wait. Check out the commemorative master list as well, as I just updated it with ASG Event baseballs and a bit more. I am always working to make this the best resource for anything commemorative baseballs.
As always, if you have something interesting to share, want to reach out to me, have any questions, or a good idea for an article, email me at [email protected] I always love to hear from you all!
I’d say my favorite is the 2015-17 ball because neither they didn’t make it too modern, nor did they use some really bad font. After that it’s definitely the first use cowhide balls, but I wouldn’t consider those an Opening Day commemorative because if wasn’t really because of Opening Day.
Thanks for sharing Tyler! Yes, I would agree it was not exactly an Opening Day commemorative, but it was something being commemorated on Opening Day. An Outlier.
Hi… lots of good research in here. However, why do you say “Here’s another outlier… In 1997 on Opening Day, the National League and American League each used their own baseball to honor…” . Through the 1999 season there were separate American League balls and National League balls. They had the AL and NL presidents on the respective ball (not the overall MLB commissioner). In 2000, Selig did away with the individual league balls and created the 1 main MLB ball with the commissioner’s sig on it. Selig also did away with AL and NL presidents
I know that. Thank you. I listed them as outliers because it was something that was different from every other Opening Day baseball, it was not to commemorate Opening Day.