Opening Day

Due to an unplanned and overwhelmingly annoying and expensive visit from the electrician (homeownership!) I was able to watch many more opening day games than I would have had I gone to work on Monday.

I'll be honest - I'm not ready to start thinking about baseball in March, or even early April. The NCAA tournament isn't done yet. And it's about to be NBA playoffs time.

It also has something to do with the fact that I really have no favorite team in baseball. There are a variety of teams that I want to see do well (e.g. Cubs, Mets) and some players I really like watching (e.g. Vlad Guerrero, the middle of the White Sox order) but there's no "strap in, here we go on another amazing ride" type of feeling for me on opening day. Today for someone like me just marks another sports season starting - it's not as magical and full of the springtime hopefulness that others seem to feel today. I feel differently at the start of the NFL season. But that's me.

That all said, it was nice to have baseball games on the TV again. Baseball is a great thing to have on while doing other things. You don't have to pay attention all the time while a baseball game is on - you can just listen with half an ear, and wait for certain scenarios or certain batters to start intently watching.

It was also fun to see Kerry Wood continue to torture the Cubs. He gets named the closer, and came in to the 0-0 game today and promptly gave up 3 runs to the Brewers. There's something about seeing a man so karmicly impaired keep on trying anyway. Every season for the last decade, Cubs fans have been tantalized by his promise. And just about every one of those years, he failed to deliver.

The Cubs finally excised themselves of Mark Prior's bad luck. They need to do the same with Wood. He bears the stench of failure upon his body. His very name poisons the Wrigley Field atmosphere. They should trade him, or release him, and then set fire to his locker with all his used uniforms in it.

Nice to see the Japanese guy do well in game one, though. The crowd chanting "Fu-ku-do-me" before he hit the tying 3-run HR in the ninth was a cool moment. And the Cubs have a pretty nice-looking lineup for a NL team, and Zambrano was great, so they should be in the mix this year. It's always more fun for me, living on the north side of Chicago, when the Cubs are in the mix. As I've mentioned before, my fandom is selfish - I root for what's most fun for me.

Elsewhere, Martin cannot be reached because he is still in happy shock over Johan Santana looking like Johan Santana in his Mets debut. And Kris doesn't like seeing Joe Torre in a Dodgers uniform on the 50th anniversary of them leaving Brooklyn. Maybe Kris doesn't say that, but if he had indigestion today, or if he was more annoyed than he usually was, it's because deep down in his bones and guts he knows it ain't right to see Torre anywhere else, but especially not with a team that causes such psychic pain for many in New York.

And on this opening day, I do need to ask one question: did anyone else see the Suns-Nuggets game tonight? Now THAT was something.