There still will be Giants baseball on Opening Day. Actually, triple the Giants baseball.
While Major League Baseball has ground to a halt, as has just about every sports league in the era of COVID-19, TV and streaming services have not, and so classic games will be shown in the place of live ones.
Opening Day, which ushers in spring and smiles and baseball awareness for so many, this year will include a pair of vintage first games from San Francisco — er, both losses, though — as well as Game 7 of the 2014 World Series.
MLB Network will air a 1 p.m. matchup between the Giants and Dodgers from 2013, when Clayton Kershaw got the nod on April 1 and did not hand the ball to anyone, throwing a shutout in a 4-0 Dodgers victory. Matt Cain pitched well, and George Kontos took the loss.
Next up Thursday on MLB Network, at 3 p.m., will be a 2017 Opening Day faceoff between the Giants and Diamondbacks. Some will remember this as the April 2 game that Madison Bumgarner slammed two home runs. Others will remember Mark Melancon allowing two runs in the ninth to blow the lead and the game.
Bumgarner will be a prominent Giant not once but twice on what was to be Opening Day. At 7:30, YouTube will replay Game 7 of the 2014 World Series, in which the big lefty emerged from the bullpen to throw five scoreless innings and put the team on his back.
He’ll do so one more time for your eyes, even if the real Bumgarner is now a Diamondback.
