Monday, April 02, 2007

Quick Opening Day Remarks: Yankees 9, Devil Rays 5

Woo! 2 hours of work to blow off! =P

It's so hard to write objectively on Opening Day, especially with the results of today's game and what transpired. Everything that you see today makes you hope for or against these things becoming a tread throughout the rest of the year. Hopefully for us Yankee fans, we have lots to hope for with the 9-5 result.

Because my school is either too cheap to acquire YES or is run by a group of Met fans who get off on watching SNY on the televisions at Fordham, I had to resort to the radio. Ironically though, because of Fordham, I have to go to some of the games.

According to ESPN, this is now the 10th Opening Day victory in a row for the Yankees, which is the best in the majors. It didn't come easy, with errors from A-Rod and Jeter and Pavano collapsing in the 5th. A few things though:

1) Mariano... striking out the side... having the change-up in his pitch selection... yeaaaaaaa, expect good things from easily the best closer of all-time...

2) A-Rod showing his hustle with the go-ahead run: base hit, stolen base, and scoring from 2nd on Giambi's hit. And of course, the 2-run HR iced it. Beautiful, period.

3) It's great to see Jeter up to his old tricks, especially today with the clutch 2-run single to tie the game 5-5 in the bottom of the 6th.

4) Giambi with the 2 hit/3 RBI game is encouraging to see, especially after his wrist injuries last year. There is no reason why he should hit significantly better at 1st base, especially now that he's getting more rest being the DH.

5) Though Pavano collapsed, he looked pretty decent in the first 4 innings. Many would want to attribute his struggles in the game to Opening Day nerves and not pitching since June of 2005, but we'll see for ourselves when he makes his next start.

6) YEAA!!! I loved seeing zeros next to the names of Bruney (no walks as well, even though he gave up an inherited run), Henn, Vizcaino (with the win), Farnsworth (with the hold), and the Greatest of All Time. It's absolutely encouraging to see Henn, Vizcaino and Farnsworth do what they are supposed to do.

And of course, Torre didn't overuse the bullpen, so we didn't have to use Proctor! YEA! =P

7) Amazing class displayed today from the men and women of the right-field bleachers, showing respect and displaying their love for Bernie after the customary "Box seats suck!" insult in the roll call. Enough said. =)

Now, I can only hope and wait for Wednesday to come. I got a ticket in Section 39 to see Pettitte return to the mound, but the weatherman isn't making me hopeful for Wednesday or Thursday... *sighs*

We'll just see what happens... blah.

Happy reading!

B(rent)

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