Globe iconLogin iconRecap iconSearch iconTickets icon

The White House has officially responded to the Opening Day holiday petition

The campaign to make MLB's Opening Day a national holiday received an overwhelming amount of support from baseball fans across the U.S. The initiative, which was created by Ozzie Smith with the help of Budweiser, received the 100,000 signatures necessary to receive an official response from the White House.

That response came down on Friday night. While it did not say whether President Obama supports the idea or not, it noted that the holiday-establishing duties generally don't rest with the executive branch anyway:

While we are sympathetic to your pitch to make Opening Day a national holiday, it's a little outside our strike zone: creating permanent federal holidays is traditionally the purview of Congress. So, it's up to the men and women on Capitol Hill to decide whether to swing at this pitch.

So you're telling us there's a chance?

But really, even if Congress doesn't decide to take up the cause, there's no reason to be disappointed. We think Opening Day is a holiday already with support on both sides if the aisles -- in every stadium!