Agnes Varghese, special to wtop.com

WASHINGTON – Major League Baseball’s Opening Day is already an unofficial holiday for the estimated 22 million Americans that “play hooky” to attend it.

Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith and Budweiser (the official beer of MLB) are teaming up to launch a White House petition to make Opening Day a nationally recognized holiday.

This petition process requires 100,000 signatures within 30 days to warrant review and response from the Obama administration.

Budweiser is running an extensive campaign, including an online video series featuring Smith and digital advertisements on ESPN.com and MLB.com.

Other former MLB players who have joined the campaign effort include Eric Byrnes, Howard Johnson and Sean Casey.

The campaign ends on March 26, 2014 and is being signed by supporters online at Budweiser’s website just in time for Opening Day.

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