Yankees postpone Opening Day to Friday

When the 2022 MLB season was delayed due to the owners’ lockout of the players, one small plus for the league was that it opened up the possibility that the campaign could begin with a classic Yankees/Red Sox showdown. Sure enough, when the lockout was lifted, the revised Opening Day schedule had the longtime rivals kicking off the season at Yankee Stadium on the afternoon of Thursday, April 7th.

It all sounded well and good until the weather forecast for this week hit the news. Heavy rain is expected in New York for Thursday, and with that outlook not changing, the Yankees and MLB went ahead and postponed Opening Day. New York and Boston will now begin their seasons on Friday afternoon instead:

It’s frustrating because of how much fans have been looking forward to the start of 2022, but given all the extra preparation that involves the events around Opening Day, it made sense to go ahead and announce the rainout. It would’ve been an unfortunate experience if they made fans come to Yankee Stadium tomorrow afternoon with very little chance of actually getting the season underway. As of now, the weather looks better for Friday.

We’ll see you all on Friday afternoon, when Gerrit Cole will face Nathan Eovaldi. Since that was a built-in off-day anyway, there will be no doubleheaders scheduled; the Yankees’ pitching staff is just going to need that extra help on the Opening Day roster with 10 games in 10 straight days to start the season.