When Was The Last Time The Reds Canceled Opening Day?

Updated: March 28 at 5:45 p.m.

On Wednesday, the Reds announced it was postponing its 2018 Thursday home opener against the Washington Nationals due to weather. We wondered: Had this happened before? 

"The Reds have rescheduled Opening Day due to rain seven times since they first joined the national league in 1876," answered Greg Rhodes, team historian and author of seven books on the Reds, including one on the history of Opening Day. 

Even more remarkably, the last time rain postponed the Reds' opener was in 1966. "It's a pretty amazing record when you think about playing in one of the wettest months of the year," Rhodes says. 

On four of those seven occasions, the opening game was still held in Cincinnati, just a day or two late. On the other three occasions—the last being that 1966 game in which the Reds played against the New York Mets—the team was forced to open on the road. 

"In (1966), rain canceled the first three games of the season (against the Mets)," Rhodes explains. "So we lost the opener, we lost the makeup game and then we lost the next game. The Reds actually opened on the road in Philadelphia that year and then came back to Cincinnati 11 days later and had the home opener. It was a night game, and they had a very modest pregame ceremony."

Fan reaction to the news was swift (and occasionally humorous). 

Rhodes says it likely wasn't a decision the Reds made lightly. "Anytime you postpone a game there's a lot of things to take into consideration, and all the more so when it's Opening Day," he says before adding with a laugh:

"At this point, maybe we should all root for three more days of rain and then we'd have the opener and the parade on the same day."