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Ranking every MLB team's #OpeningDay tweet

Some teams have really good digital media people, and some teams need to maybe hire someone better.

By Peter Woodburn
Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

Following Opening Day on Twitter is a real fantastic thing. It is probably the only day in the entire year where anyone and everyone linked to baseball on your timeline is bonafied excited about baseball. Hopes and dreams aren't crushed yet. It is a captive audience of pure happiness.

If you don't follow the Mariners on Twitter, you are missing out on one of the more entertaining Twitter accounts of a professional sports team. That isn't being said because I like the Mariners. If you take a look at what each and every team did yesterday morning, you see clear cut cases of fantastic uses of social media. You also see clear cut cases of the social media manager being run by someone who knows more about Twitter through stock purchases than actually using the site.

So let's take a look and see how each team fared with their uber-hyped "IT IS OPENING DAY" tweet.

N/A - San Francisco Giants

The Giants get a slight pass here, because longtime Giants broadcaster Lon Simmons passed away last evening. There really can't be anything much harder for a social media employee than paying respects of a beloved figure of the franchise, while still trying to hype up. So, in honor of Simmons, the Giants get a pass. Which is more than I really want to give them, since the name on their profile reads World Champs, and they've pinned a tweet from Oct. 29th celebrating that fact.

No. 29 - Boston Red Sox

Nothing gets me more excited for baseball than a screenshot from an iPhone about the weather. At least they had the decency to crop out the server and battery life remaining.

No. 28 - Minnesota Twins

The Twins are celebrating Opening Day by telling people where to buy tickets. It may just be me, but I'm not really feeling that tingly feeling coming from the social media intern.

No. 27 - Cleveland Indians

The Indians celebrated Opening Day by bragging about how many followers they have. It is better than an iPhone screenshot, but not by much.

No. 26 - Chicago White Sox

The White Sox celebrated Opening Day by also celebrating Let Your Five-Year-Old Daughter Create Something On Adobe Illustrator For the First Time Ever Day. I don't know much about graphic design, but my two eyes tell me that the White Sox post looks like garbage -- and that is even without my glasses on.

No. 25 - Miami Marlins

We'll see a few of these later in the list, but the Marlins couldn't even be bothered with including their field in their Opening Day tweet. Instead, it is just a logo that could have come from any other stadium not occupied by Boise State. The social media flubber was just a bit of foreboding about how the Marlins had a rain delay,despite owning a stadium with a retractable roof.

No. 24 - St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals opened on the road, and if it wasn't for the Twitter handle you might be thinking this is a Cubs account based on the photo.

No. 23 - Colorado Rockies

The Rockies were in a tough spot because they opening on the road. But so did half the other teams, and half the other teams did something generic to make up for it. Instead, the Rockies got everyone excited about how beautiful the coast of Lake Michigan is.

No. 22-17 - Baltimore Orioles, LA Angels, Oakland Athletics, Texas Rangers, LA Dodgers, San Diego Padres

This is the spot where teams avoided errors and just went with generic. Each of these teams posted a Vine clip of someone rounding the bases and celebrating. It was cute at first, but got old and tired real fast.

No. 16 - Chicago Cubs

The Cubs are the introduction into the next set of bland images: Opening Day text combined with a shot of the stadium. Most usually involved a sunset as well. The reason why the Cubs is even worse is because considering the state of affairs at Wrigley Field, maybe a photo of the stadium isn't exactly the way to get everyone excited.

No. 15-9 - New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals, Cincinnati Reds

Here is your blockade of people saying Happy Opening Day combined with a professionally taken photo of the stadium. Each one was a bit nice, but each one was rather generic. Considering the best way to set yourself apart on social media is to be creative, these teams really didn't much to up their Twitter game.

No. 8 - Tampa Rays

Now we are getting to the level of teams who win, solely because they did something different.


No. 7 - Arizona Diamondbacks

No. 6 - New York Mets

No. 5 - Atlanta Braves

No. 4 - Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates might have the most comical tweet out of all of baseball on opening day here. It is hard to tell if they are advertising for Opening Day or if Clint Hurdle is needing a new photo for E-Harmony.

No. 3 - Milwaukee Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers: 2015, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

No. 2 - Seattle Mariners

I know this is a Mariners blog, so their ranking might already be a bit inflated, but the Mariners did it right here (like they usually do on the social media front). Yesterday was Opening Day, but most importantly, it was the first Felix Day of the season, which overrides all other aspects of the day.

No. 1 - Toronto Blue Jays

I present to you the inspiration for this post, and the most dramatic tweet in all of baseball. The Blue Jays just swung for the fences on this one. They aren't asking for the 2.5 million people living in the Toronto area to cheer on this loveable Canadian team, they want ALL Canadians cheering them on. All 35.16 million, come together! No other team pulled off what the Blue Jays did here. Not only does it make you excited for opening day, it also makes you want to join the Canadian Armed Forces and fight your way out of the commonwealth. Well done Canada, you win this round.

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