Opening Day TV Schedule?

There are sort of two Opening Days in 2011, with 10 teams opening on Thursday, March 31 and 20 teams opening on Friday, April 1.  In the past ESPN has carried the Sunday night season opening game, last year it being the Yankees-Red Sox as the only game that day.  On Monday ESPN and ESPN2 combined to show five Opening Day games, as is tradition.  For the new schedule layout that begins on a Thursday, however, the new TV alignment has yet to be arranged.  So I guess I have nothing to go off of besides last year's format, but I'm changing the alignment tentatively with two games on the first day, three on the second.  This post is to show the best games of the two Opening Days, and say which should be on ESPN.  The 2011 schedule is here and I choose two games from the Thursday games and three from the Friday games.



Thursday games:


Milwaukee Brewers at Cincinnati Reds
ESPN likes to show the home opener in Cincinnati, an event that has occurred in Cincinnati every year since 1901 except 1966.  The tradition behind it is huge for Reds fans, and Great American Ball Park hosted its first playoff game last season.  The Brewers, on the other hand, are a team that probably won't contend in 2011 for the same reason as 2010, the fact that they really don't have any pitching.  The small dimensions at Great American with the power hitters from both teams should make for an interesting game.

Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees
This game just barely beat out San Diego at St. Louis, but that game would have resulted in lower ratings.  The Tigers are going to spend this offseason and could end up with someone like Victor Martinez or Carl Crawford.  As the Tigers should be a better team in 2011, the Yankees will be good like always and looking to redeem themselves after the failure that was 2010 where they lost in the ALCS (of course, only to they Yankees was that failure).


Friday games:


Minnesota Twins at Toronto Blue Jays
The Jays may be the most exciting offensive team in the country, leading baseball in homers in 2010 and fielding a lineup stacked with stars.  The pitching is mediocre and without an ace, but the Jays always hang around and win 85 or so games.  This will be an interesting game against Minnesota, the team that plays the game so well with a tremendous organization but has failed awfully in the playoffs this decade (no wonder they haven't received the criticism they deserve).  Interesting matchup.

San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers
The opener for the World Champion Giants would be interesting enough, but adding it to Dodger Stadium against the hated rival Los Angeles, now this is a great game.  The Dodgers can still contend in 2011 after NLCS appearances in 2008 and 2009.  The Giants will likely lose a few players to free agency, so this will be a good first test.

Boston Red Sox at Texas Rangers
This matchup makes fans mouths water.  After an amazing series last season in Texas, including a walk-off homer from Nelson Cruz in the 13th in a 9-9 game, these two teams showed that the power on power down south is something to behold.  Red Sox GM Theo Epstein will reshape his team to get back to the playoffs, so they will be improved.  The franchise popularity of the Rangers was at an all time high when they got to the World Series, and even though they lost, the Rangers will be a great team next year and for a while.