Petition to Make Baseball's Opening Day a National Holiday to Receive Response

If you sign it, will it come?

A White House “We the People” petition to make Major League Baseball's opening day a national holiday has reached its goal of 100,000 signatures, guaranteeing it a response from the White House.

The petition needed to reach 100,000 signatures by March 26, 2014. It had reached that total by Friday, March 21, according to MLB.com.

“It’s a day of hope. It’s a day that, for generations, has been looked forward to by baseball fans every off-season. It’s an American tradition, and it deserves to be recognized as an American holiday,” the petition says. “Join us in our quest to make sure every American can exercise their inalienable right to celebrate the day those two magical words are uttered for the first time: ‘PLAY BALL!’”

The petition has been pushed by beer-maker Budweiser in a series of three ads featuring Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, who says in one, “Opening day should be a holiday. Let’s make it official.”

White House petitions have been used to campaign for everything from building a Death Star to letting Texas secede from the Union. While the White House technically has 60 days to respond, Budweiser is working to expedite the process in time for this year's opening day, March 31.

"We're working with them to accelerate that so we can get a quicker response," Tom Kraus, director of Budweiser Brand Marketing, told MLB.com. “Once we get a quicker notification, we will share that info with our Facebook friends and all the folks who have been engaged in this movement with us. Then from there, we are working on specific market activations to bring this to life and thank the community and the White House for hopefully making this an official holiday.”
 

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