The 2011 Major League Baseball season will open with a nationally televised tripleheader on ESPN.
As reported last summer, Major League Baseball has indeed moved up the start of Opening Day. The season will begin on Thursday, March 31, marking the first time since 1998 that MLB has opened the season on a day other than Sunday or Monday.
Opening Day features three nationally televised games on ESPN, beginning with the Yankees hosting the Tigers at 1 PM ET. Tigers/Yankees will not necessarily be the first game of the season as a whole, as a non-televised Braves/Nationals matchup is also scheduled for 1 PM.
In the middle game, the Padres visit the Cardinals at 4 PM ET.
The tripleheader concludes with the defending champion Giants facing the Dodgers at 8 PM ET, in what ESPN says will be the debut telecast of the new Dan Shulman/Bobby Valentine/Orel Hershiser Sunday Night Baseball broadcast team.
ESPN is scheduled to air Baseball Tonight at 12 PM and 7 PM, equaling nearly twelve straight hours of baseball programming.
In recent years, the MLB season began with a solitary Sunday ‘Opening Night’ game on ESPN, followed by a full slate of Opening Day games the following day.
(MLB and ESPN press releases from Fang’s Bites)
