Rain forecast to start around ten pm, at least according to the trusty Microsoft weather forecast that MS glued into W10 and their "new" browser.
For the new fans here, the season used to start about April 15, give or take a day or so. Opening Day was in Washington, where the President had thrown out the first ball ever since William Howard Taft, and at Cincinnati, because they claimed to have the oldest professional team in the country. That's questionable, since their first game was in 1882 and against the Pittsburgh Alleghenys (AKA, Allegheny City), which became known as the Pirates in 1891. Both teams played in the American Association. That Cincinnati team followed an older team that broke up in 1879; today's Reds have no more connection to that earlier professional team than the current Washington Nationals have to Washington's 1870 professional team.
As best I can tell, the oldest franchise is the Chicago Cubs, which were originally the Chicago White-Stockings, and the Atlanta Braves, descended from the Boston Red-Stockings which eventually because Boston and then Milwakee Braves. They were re-named Braves because their owner, James Gaffney, was a New York Tammany Hall "Sachem"; Tammany used Indian symbols and named their officers various kinds of chiefs. (For those keeping score, the Boston Redskins seem to have been named after the Braves).
The "oldest team" is a tricky topic, since MLB decided in 1969 to exclude the National Association of Professional Baseball Players, the oldest professional league. It was founded about 1871. The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs began in 1876, and the National Association disintegrated.
the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs was established with eight charter members, as follows:
o Chicago ("Chicago White Stockings") (according to The Baseball Encyclopedia's retroactive naming convention) from the NA (now the Chicago Cubs, not to be confused with the current Chicago White Sox of the American League)
o Athletic Club of Philadelphia ("Philadelphia Athletics") from the NA (expelled after the 1876 season)
o Boston ("Boston Red Stockings"), the dominant team in the NA (later the Boston Braves, then the Milwaukee Braves, now the Atlanta Braves, not to be confused with the present-day Boston Red Sox of the later American League)
o Hartford ("Hartford Dark Blues") from the NA (folded after the 1877 season)
o Mutual Club of New York ("New York Mutuals") from the NA (expelled after the 1876 season)
o St. Louis ("St. Louis Brown Stockings") from the NA (folded after the 1877 season, having committed to Louisville Stars for 1878)
o Cincinnati ("Cincinnati Reds"), a new franchise (disbanded after the 1879 season)
o Louisville ("Louisville Grays"), a new franchise (folded after the 1877 season when four players were banned for gambling)
While MLB used to begin the season in Washington and Cincinnati a day before the rest of the AL and NL, Washington was the legitimate first team. That's where Taft handed the first ball to Walter Johnson.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Professional_Base_Ball_Players-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Association_(1882%E2%80%931891)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_League_(baseball)
