For a very long time, the Reds always were the first game of the MLB season. In 1982 the Cubs faced the Reds and Mario Soto. Bump Wills (son of Maury) deposited the first pitch of the MLB season over the fence. Incidentally, this was Ryne Sandberg’s first game as a Cub. Cubs went on to win 3-2 in 8 innings. When you first posted that, I was gonna joke that I probably wasn't even alive yet, but, yeah, I wasn't alive yet.