Like it or not, it is a necessity. They want opening day to go flawlessly so they need to have a “soft opening” or two to work out the kinks. I lived in San Francisco when they opened the new park there – PacBell at the time, now AT&T. They played the Yanks in an exhibition game – Jorge became the first to hit the ball into McCovey cove. Great time but a complete mess logistically. Ferries to take people to from game couldn’t dock, lines at concession stands and men’s rooms were unbelievable. After two exhinitions, the Giants then went on a road trip to open the season so they could work 24/7 to fix the problems in time for the “real” opener.

I’d be surprised if this wasn’t normal practice when they open new stadiums all across the country.

it sucks for nostalgia purposes, but you have to understand why they do it… kind of like a test drive, to try everything out, see what’s working, what’s not working, and do the tweaking before the regular season starts.

I don’t like this at all…just gives the players a better chance to get hurt. Its way too cold when they start playing, its only worse if they start earlier