Milwaukee Brewers: When Is the New 2022 Opening Day?

Yes, it appears that the Milwaukee Brewers will officially be playing regular season baseball in 2022. No, it did not come without cost to the originally planned schedule.

A couple weeks ago as the CBA negotiations were finally starting to pick up steam, all eyes were on February 28th, MLB’s self-imposed “deadline” to need an agreement without needing to cancel any regular season games. When a deal appeared to be somewhat within grasp, the deadline was pushed forward a day.

Unable to reach a deal on March 1st, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred removed the first two series from each team’s schedule. For the Brewers, that meant losing two very winnable series against the Diamondbacks and Giants.

When negotiations picked up a few days later, the prospect of still playing all 162 games was put on the table. Then, when a deal wasn’t reached by MLB’s new “deadline” earlier this week, another couple series were removed from the schedule.

Then, out of the blue, negotiations were taking place again almost immediately. And on March 10th, 2022, a tentative deal was reached between the league and the players’ union. On top of that, it came with all 162 games being put back on the schedule.

So, with all the change, when on earth is Opening Day for the 2022 Milwaukee Brewers?

The final kinks of the schedule are still being worked out, so we won’t know the entire schedule for a bit. But it sounds like while the first canceled week of games will be made up later in the year, the second week is being put back in its original place, according to Adam McCalvy of MLB.com.

Yep, you read that right. Instead of a nice, cushy series against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the comfort of American Family Field, it’ll be a road series against the rival Chicago Cubs in the much less friendly confines of Wrigley Field.

One needs to only go back to 2020 to find the last time the Brewers played the Cubs on Opening Day, a game that was also on the road. On July 24th of that shortened season, Brandon Woodruff gave up two runs over five innings and Orlando Arcia had the only three hits of the game for the Crew as they were shut out 3-0.

Milwaukee’s home opener will now take place on April 14th when they host the St. Louis Cardinals. You don’t have to go back very far to find the last time that occurrence happened for the Crew either.

On March 28th, 2019, the Brewers kicked off their season with a home series against the Cards. This one turned out in Milwaukee’s favor as homers by Mike Moustakas, Christian Yelich, and Jhoulys Chacin (yes, you read that right), not to mention a game-winning catch at the wall by Lorenzo Cain, led to a 5-4 Brewers victory.

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It’s sad that Brewers fans have to deal with Opening Day now instead being an away game, but none of that matters as long as baseball is back in our lives.