The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT April 2, 2011

While it may have been called Opening Day at various major league baseball stadiums this week, it didn't seem that way on television.

In watching some of those early season games in New York and Chicago, it didn't seem like the first day of spring baseball.

More like the end of the football season.

AND TO think, teams such as Anaheim, Atlanta and Seattle hit the road to open the season.

Both Anaheim and Atlanta could go another week with games at home before hitting the road, whereas Seattle, which is nowhere close to a warm weather city, has one thing going those others don't - a retractable roof.

If it came down to weather issues, such as those that came up this week on the East Coast, some games could be either delayed or postponed and made up later in the season.

So why not eliminate the middle man and schedule those games later if preventable.

Granted nobody wants to come to Seattle to start the season, but they'll have to do it at some point during the regular season, right?

Whatever competitive advantage gained from playing a series at Safeco Field, or anywhere else warm during the first two weeks will have zero impact on the playoffs come September.

THERE HAS always been something special about going to a game on Opening Day.

Two years ago, it was the return of Ken Griffey Jr. in a Mariners uniform. Last year, it was the debut of Cliff Lee as what was expected to be the No. 2 to a two-ace rotation that was supposed to bring the Mariners to an American League West championship.

Griffey had some clutch hits during the 2009 season, but should have rode off into the sunset instead of retiring after Memorial Day in 2010.

Lee was injured to start the season, then began to lead his AL West team to the World Series.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the Mariners.

Lee was traded in July to the Texas Rangers and proceeded to lead the Rangers to their first World Series in franchise history.

And once the nostalgia of the home opener subsides, most fans don’t return until after the weather warms up again.

WHAT I’VE learned from watching two of the Mariners’ previous three home openers — it really doesn’t matter what the weather is like.

Snowing, raining or sunshine, they open the roof and keep it that way until conditions change again.

Opening Day should be a time of kicking back and enjoying the crack of the bat.

Not cracking ice off the bleachers.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached via telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or by e-mail at [email protected].