Thoughts from Opening Night

- We've made it. Here we are. Opening night was a great idea for Major League Baseball, whenever they came up with it. It's nice to bring all the fans together to kick off the season with one game before we all split off to follow our respective teams. Baseball itself can be appreciated for this one night.

- Baseball that means something just has a different feel to it. I watched a fair amount of Spring Training baseball (Thank you MLB network), but you can definitely sense the increased intensity of the games, and it's wonderful. (Sadly I missed the pre-game festivities and the first 10 outs, but the Bonsai Kittens won their consolation game in my indoor frisbee league. Third Place.)

- (Nothing to do with Baseball) I just had sushi for the first time. (I've tried others' sushi but never ordered my own.) It's solid. Wasabi produces a great sensation and tastes very good. It's like horseradish on steroids. I loved it!

- Great to see Pedro throwing out the first pitch in Fenway to Jason Varitek. As much as I loved seeing Pedro with the Mets, Fenway is his home; and as much as I hate the stupid "C" on Jason Varitek's Jersey, he is the man to receive such a pitch.

- Unfortunately, here in Boston, I had to watch opening night on NESN, because they blackout almost every ESPN game. I actually enjoy Don Orsillo, but hearing Jon Miller's voice is hearing the sound of baseball, so I was sorry to miss out on that.

- Impressive for Curtis Granderson to open his Yankee career with a bomb of a homerun, and this one was not even in the Yankee Stadium jet stream.

- As for the NESN telecast, it was actually quite solid. As mentioned, Orillo does a great job and Jerry Remy was very bearable tonight. He had problems, at times, with a Joe West strike zone that I thought was legitimate and consistent, and performed some very shitty telestration on Don Orsillo's suit, but it has been pretty good. Rem Dawg did combat some Red Sox protests of pitches that were obviously strikes. If the Sox were to get frustrated, perhaps their gripe was better directed toward Angel Hernandez. Mike Cameron was safe by a good enough amount on the line-drive double-play, but Hernandez was in bad position, and Dustin Pedroia seemed to tie C.C. Sabathia to the base on a ground ball to first.

- Pretty sweet to open the season with some classic baseball, as the Yankees successfully completed a 1st and 3rd, run-scoring double steal in the 3rd. Have to give dap to the Rem Dawg who was all over this play. As soon as the count hit 0-2 he began to talk about the idea, and sure enough the Yankees went for it, despite the fact that you don't see too many of them.

- It must be the first game of the season as my pop-up-arm-raise reflex is showing signs of rust. (By the end of the game, it was loose, and shooting up like it should on those pop-ups)

- Josh Beckett had no curveball tonight. I think I saw him throw one for a strike. His release point may have been a little low. A lot of the pitches started at the knees and dropped lower, easy to lay off. Quite a few others just didn't have the sharp movement to come back at the corner, back door style against the lefties.

- C.C. Sabathia got tired. At around pitch 75, C.C. started to lose it. His change-up was coming in at 86 mph, and when his fastball lost it's consistent 94 mph velocity, the speed change became less effective. He also seemed to abandon his breaking pitch somewhere late in the start, even though it was very effective early.

- Very good to see Scott Schoenweiss pitch effectively. He had a really rough year in 2009, with his wife's suicide, and Scott's subsequent emotional trouble. He was cut by the Brewers towards the end of the spring, but beat out Alan Embree for the last spot in the Sox pen. Congrats Scott. I hope you have a much better 2010.

- These bullpens are struggling. Two bullpens that seem like they'll be pretty solid are off to a slow start. Outside of Schoenweiss, everyone has looked vulnerable, and sliders have been scooting past catchers at an alarming rate.

- Kevin Youkilis is having one hell of a night!

- Nick Johnson and, especially, Jorge Posada don't seem to be showing signs of the injuries that kept them out of some late spring training games.

- Sub-par outings from these Aces and shaky bullpen pitching is sure making for an exciting game. I'm currently at 8-7 Sox in the bottom of the 7th, but I doubt I've seen the last of the scoring.

- David Ortiz is the out the Yankees have been able to get when they are in trouble. This is something that could tell the story of the Red Sox season. He needs to at least be a threat for this line-up. I know it's game one, and a lefty started, but just a note.

- Brett Gardner made a pretty bad throw allowing runners to move up. However, the NESN guys thought it was a terrible throw home. It wasn't. It was a bad throw to third. He threw it high, and no one was backing up third, as they were backing up a potential throw home. That made it look worse. It was still bad. A left-handed thrower in left field will always be weird to watch.

- I don't know if ESPN showed it, but Steven Tyler did "God Bless America" during the 7th inning stretch. I'm an Aerosmith fan, but I wasn't particularly excited to hear Tyler, as he now sounds like his days on stage are quickly fading. (If you've followed any of the inter-Aero drama, it could be sooner rather than later) However, for those who are not Aerosmith fans you might not have noticed that the woman with Tyler (sorry I didn't know who that was) joined him for a harmony on the final words "home sweet home" from the song. That harmony is actually pulled directly from an Aerosmith song, "Home Sweet Home". I thought that was a nice touch.

- This game is going pretty late. I hope that everyone on the East Coast is staying up.

- Daniel Bard's arm sure seams ready for the season. I saw him reach at least 98 mph, as he tries to improve the numbers for these bullpens tonight.

- Mike Cameron's forever underestimated speed still screws with pitchers' heads, even late in his career. (I'll always love watching him patrol center field. The two best I've seen play the position were wearing Seattle Mariner Jerseys. (No disrespect to young Andruw Jones, Torii Hunter or Ty Lawson.) Might have to take Cameron even over Griffey, if only due to his ability to continue to be great into his later years. (MIGHT!))

- Seems that the close play at first that he ended up getting the short on has fired up Pedroia, as he has come up with big at bats since then. It was that first shot to the jaw from De La Hoya he needed before unleashing an array of Shaq punches. (Another season of Shaq Vs, I hope, I hope.)

- I have too many thoughts. Imagine if I did this with every game. That'd be ridiculous.

- Wouldn't be a real baseball game without a fake to 3rd, fake to first pick off bluff. I've, to this day, seen it work once in my lifetime.

-It will be Papel-Bones, not the great Mo Rivera that gets the chance to wrap this thing up. At 11:50 EDT, hopefully the young Sox fans were given special permission to stay up and see it.

- Doesn't feel right with all these adds on NESN about how Peter Gammons will be a part of their post game coverage. I know he's a Sox fan, but that just isn't where he belongs. I'm not his biggest supporter, but he will certainly be missed on Baseball tonight, Sportscenter, et al.

- You can close the book on this one, just before midnight here on the East Coast. It was a very entertaining opening night, and now I feel ready for the new season. (I have been antsy for the Met opener tomorrow since about the 3rd inning of this game.)

Hope you all enjoyed it. I will be at Fenway on Wednesday for game 3 of the series. Took off work tomorrow, to enjoy an entire day of baseball. Goodnight all.

Excitedly,

APT