An Opening Day start is always a thrill, whether a player is getting that honor for the first time or has been doing it for a decade.

And while many in today's game have plenty of experience with it, none make our all-time Opening Day starter team, which features the player with the most such starts at each position (since 1901), according to Baseball-Reference's Stathead. In the event of a tie, the player with the most success in those games was selected.

An active leader is also listed at each position, based on totals through 2024. (Player must be signed with a team to be considered active).

Pitcher: Tom Seaver (16 starts)
Seaver sits two starts ahead of Steve Carlton, Randy Johnson, Walter Johnson and Jack Morris. The Hall of Famer got the nod for the Mets every year from 1968-77, after taking National League Rookie of the Year honors in '67, then got six more starts over the next nine seasons for the Reds, Mets and White Sox. Seaver posted a 3.13 ERA in those 16 outings and went on to win a Cy Young Award in three of those campaigns.
Active leader: Justin Verlander (12 starts)

Catcher: Ivan Rodriguez (20 starts)
Over Rodriguez's 21-year career, he was in the Opening Day lineup every season except his first, when he debuted in June. His initial Game 1 appearance came with the Rangers at age 20 in 1992, when he caught for Nolan Ryan and threw out a young Mariners center fielder named Ken Griffey Jr. on a steal attempt. That season, Rodriguez made the first of 14 All-Star teams and won the first of a record 13 Gold Glove Awards behind the plate. Rodriguez also made Opening Day starts for the Marlins, Tigers, Astros and Nationals through 2011, though he hit only .205/.253/.423 in those games.
Active leader: Salvador Perez (10 starts)

First base: Joe Judge (19 starts)
After debuting in September 1915, Judge started every Opening Day for the rest of his career. The first 17 of those came with the Washington Senators, and the final two with the Dodgers and Red Sox. This was a far different era -- Judge is listed at 5-foot-8 and 155 pounds -- but he still ranks 13th all-time in career games at first base. Todd Helton, Fred McGriff, Keith Hernandez and Eddie Murray are the only others to even make 16 Opening Day starts at first since 1940.
Active leader: Joey Votto, Freddie Freeman (14 starts)

Second base: Joe Morgan (20 starts)
Over the course of his 22-year Hall of Fame career, Morgan started at second base on Opening Day an even 20 times, one more than Eddie Collins. After playing only 18 Major League games from 1963-64, Morgan entered the Game 1 lineup as a 21-year-old the following season -- the year the Houston franchise switched from Colt .45's to Astros -- and stayed there through his age-40 season with the '84 A's. Morgan also made starts for the Giants, the Phillies and of course the Reds over the years, posting a very Morgan-like stat line: .296/.444/.408 with six extra-base hits, eight steals and 10 more walks (18) than strikeouts (eight).
Active leader: Jose Altuve (12 starts)

Third base: Brooks Robinson (20 starts)
Not only did the Hall of Famer and 16-time Gold Glove Award winner make two more Opening Day starts at the hot corner than second-place Adrián Beltré, but also he made each of them in an Orioles uniform. The first came in 1957, when Robinson was still a teenager and future World Series-winning manager Whitey Herzog was the starting center fielder and leadoff man for the opposing Washington Senators. The streak continued through '76, as Robinson batted .316/.349/.595 with six home runs and 17 RBIs in those games, leading Baltimore to a 15-5 record.
Active leader: Nolan Arenado (11 starts)

Shortstop: Omar Vizquel (18 starts)
Luis Aparicio also made 18 starts at short from 1956-73, but Vizquel, despite being known more for his glove, also brought his bat on Opening Day. He hit .324/.367/.405 with a homer and six steals in these contests, which included 17 straight from 1991-2007 with Seattle, Cleveland and San Francisco. Amazingly, the 11-time Gold Glove Award winner continued his career through a 24th season in 2012, when he was 45.
Active leader: Brandon Crawford (12 starts)

Left field: Barry Bonds (19 starts)
Bonds made it into two more Opening Day lineups than any other left fielder and performed in true Bonds fashion by batting .364/.500/.727 with six homers, 12 RBIs, 18 walks (six intentional) and only five strikeouts. The all-time home run leader went 7-for-9 with two homers over his first two openers with the Pirates from 1988-89 and began his record-setting 73-homer campaign with the 2001 Giants by going deep off the Padres' Woody Williams in San Francisco.
Active leader: Christian Yelich, Andrew Benintendi (eight starts)

Center field: Willie Mays (21 starts)
Bonds' godfather started for the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds as a 20-year-old on Opening Day 1952, about six weeks before he was drafted into the Army. He returned for the first game of the '54 season and hit the go-ahead homer in the sixth inning as the Giants beat the Dodgers, 4-3. It was one of seven times Mays went deep over those 21 Opening Day games, during which he also produced 16 RBIs. Mays' streak continued through 1973, when he made his lone Opening Day start for the Mets after being traded back to New York the previous May. That pushed him past Tris Speaker for the center field record.
Active leader: Mike Trout (12 starts)

Right field: Al Kaline (19 starts)
Although he hit a modest .216/.318/.338 with two home runs on Opening Day, Kaline made two more starts in right than second-place Tony Gwynn. Like Gwynn with the Padres, Kaline was a one-team man, suiting up only for the Tigers during his Hall of Fame career. Kaline's first Game 1 assignment came as a 19-year-old in 1954, and he didn't get his last until '73. No Tigers player since then has made more than seven Opening Day starts at the position.
Active leader: Jason Heyward (12 starts)

Designated hitter: David Ortiz (13 starts)
Big Papi took over sole possession of the lead over Don Baylor in his final season, 2016. He would have set the mark a year earlier, except the Sox began their season without a DH and Ortiz manned first base in an NL park in Philadelphia. Ortiz made his first two Game 1 starts for the Twins from 2001-02, homering both times. After Minnesota made the blunder of letting him go, and Boston scooped him up, Ortiz continued his Opening Day exploits. As a DH in openers, Ortiz hit .333/.421/.771 with five home runs in his career.
Active leader: Shohei Ohtani, J.D. Martinez and Jorge Soler (six starts)