My excuse is even worse: I have a bowling league on Thursday nights.
Normally the game would be on in the afternoon, I would watch it, and then go bowling at night. But since it's Cy Young Skubal vs Ohtani and the world champs, the game got bumped back to a 6:10pm CT start for a national cablecast on, ironically, the football/basketball sports leader. At that exact time I will be on Western Avenue driving to the alley, with our league night starting at 6:45pm, and going through to about 9:30pm, well after the game will be over. And no way any of the TVs at the alley could be tuned to the game because, thanks to the genius of Rob Manfred, Opening Day is the same day the NCAA Sweet 16 starts, and everyone at the bowling alley has a bracket to follow.