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Ozzie Smith and Budweiser Want to Make Opening Day a National Holiday

The White House’s We the People website is no stranger to odd petitions. After all, it was just last month when the White House was petitioned to allow beer drones for easy beer delivery and to ...
Ozzie Smith and Budweiser Want to Make Opening Day a National Holiday
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  • The White House’s We the People website is no stranger to odd petitions. After all, it was just last month when the White House was petitioned to allow beer drones for easy beer delivery and to deport Justin Bieber. Now, thanks to a joint effort by MLB Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith and Budweiser, the White House has a new petition on its hands–to make MLB Opening Day a national holiday.

    The petition, which you can access through the Budweiser website as long as you’re at least 21 years old, or access via the We the People website, was started on Monday. Ozzie Smith and Budweiser will have 30 days from the time the petition was started to get the 100,000 signatures needed for the White House to review the petition. Once the petition receives the minimum number of signatures, the White House is supposed to issue a response.

    The reason provided for making MLB Opening Day a national holiday on the petition page is that Opening Day is a widely anticipated American tradition. Check out the full explanation provided for the petition below.

    MLB Opening Day is more than just the beginning of the season. It’s a symbol of rebirth. The coming of spring. The return of America’s national pastime. It’s a state of mind where anything is possible. You can feel the electricity in the air. Opening Day brings with it the promise of a new beginning. Every fan is in good spirits. It’s a day of celebration. It’s a day of hope. It’s a day that, for generations, has been looked forward to by baseball fans every off-season. It’s an American tradition, and it deserves to be recognized as an American holiday. Join us in our quest to make sure every American can exercise their inalienable right to celebrate the day those two magical words are uttered for the first time: “PLAY BALL!”

    Smith and Budweiser are promoting the petition on their Twitter pages, and judging from some of the responses, people are certainly enjoying the far-off dream that Opening Day, which is on March 31, could become a national holiday.

    “Coming from St. Louis, of course being such a baseball town, it’s sort of an unofficial holiday, Opening Day, so they thought it would be a good idea for Mr. Smith to just take a trip to Washington,” Smith told ESPN. “I don’t know exactly what the odds of success are. With the Budweiser machine behind it, I’m sure that we’ll get the 100,000 signatures.”

    That sounds about right, as the petition is only two days old and already has just under 25,000 signatures. While it is highly unlikely that the White House will act on this petition–as nice as it would be to have a paid holiday to stay at home and watch baseball–it is certainly a good way to drum up interest in the MLB.

    Image via Budweiser

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