April 2, 2007
6:30: My iPod wakes me up while the sun is still down. I am usually very grumpy and slow in the morning before work, but not today. The first pitch is a mere 6 and half hours away.
7:00: I get into my car and make my trek to work. I put on 610 and listen to Cataldi. He is his typical negative self, not seeing the beauty of Opening Day. He has a reporter at the stadium who interviews some fans who are already there, drinking beer and getting ready for the game. I am a proud fan at this moment.
7:30 - 10:30: I worked. It sucked.
10:30: At this point on a Monday, I usually head to good ol' LaSalle University for a class. Not today. I head back to my apartment and take a quick shower. My buddy, Pat, meets me at my place and we head to the ballpark. We do encounter a dilemma as we quickly realize that my refrigerator is void of beer. There is no time to stop, so we improvise. I grab the bottle of SoCo (pictured below) from the freezer and head off.
11:15: We pull into the parking lot and see a bunch of fans, young and old, hanging around. Wiffle ball, frisbees, footballs and beer pong are all around us. It is lovely. As we look for a spot, we notice that we are in Section V. We immediately thought of Vukovich. This is where we knew we had to park.
11:20 - 12:30: Tailgating activities ensued as my my other friend, Muller, arrives with a 30 of Miller.
12:30: We get into the stadium and notice a crazy amount of energy. I was at Opening Day last season and it was nothing like this. Everyone screams "VUUUUUUUK" when the tribute to him is played. "USA" chants start after the National Anthem.
1:05: Myers throws his first strike of the year. The crowd erupts. Baseball season is here.
1:05 - 4:00: You know what happened here. It's tough to say any game that doesn't end in a win is a fun game, but this was one of those cases. The team looked shaky at points but it was great to be screaming at a baseball game again. Heckling the Braves' fans was fantastic and chanting "MVP" again was amazing. Myers is a stud and I gave him the loudest applause I could when he walked off the field in the 8th inning. My one friend, who is a huge Burrell supporter, almost got into a fight with a fellow fan when he screamed "YOU SUCK" when Burrell was at bat. The little kid who is pictured below threw a piece of a pretzel at the braves fan pictured below. It was hilarious. I completely lost my voice and have a ridiculous sunburn. I had sunglasses on and I now look like a raccoon. All worth it.
4:30: I'm stuck in traffic heading back to City Ave. I have on Eskin but have to turn it off because the immense amount of negativity is killing me. The Deftones keep me company on the ride home...
Here are some more pictures I took of the day for all of those who couldn't make it:
And now a quick "what went wrong" with yesterday's game:
- We knew coming into this season that Pat Gillick needed to fix our bullpen. He knew it, actually. But he did nothing about it. Signing Alfonseca was the most he did for it and that just wasn't going to get it done. Opening Day showed that our bullpen could be the death of our season. Manuel had to let Myers pitch the 8th because he has no faith in the relievers. Last season it was the starters who killed the bullpen. This season, the relievers may get their revenge on our rotation.
- Getting 10 hits, 4 walks and only 3 runs is completely unacceptable. When you have second and third with no outs and the heart of the order up, you have to get at least one run in. That cannot continue.
- 16 MEN LEFT ON BASE!!!
- 11 strikeouts is way too much. 3 from Rollins was very surprising.
- Those who booed Burrell almost got their asses beat. Also, one fan yelled "YEA. THERE'S YOUR 85 MILLION!!" at Utley after he grounded out. I almost had a heart attack.
Overall, the loss came due to untimely hitting and Manuel's reluctance to go to the bullpen. I can't blame him for this though. Gillick gave him little to work with and now Charlie has to find a way to keep leads with little help. It is just one game. Sure, winning the first one is great, but it is a LONG season. We can still go 161-1. I'm not worried
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9 comments:
SoCo...nice. I'm a beer man myself though (High Life).
We're definitely having a WSBGM's tailgate, with beer, food, and wiffle ball!!!
...AND TWINS!!!!!
if twins=tits...why sure!
now what else could it possibly equal?
Someone was already riding Utley for the $85-million contract? Some people need to relax...
But if you really want to get sick in the stomach, (according to the Phillies' salaries in the Inquirer today) Dishonest Abe Nunez makes a little over $1 million more than Ryan Howard this season.
great point, considering Howard already has more hits than Abe will probably get this season.
I'm glad to see a little kid throwing a pretzel at a Braves fan. Gotta bring the kids up right. Give him some batteries for when the Mets get to town.
hey guys i'm kentucky phils phan if yall remember me posting on we should be gm's a while back. well i lost my account somehow and no i'm just gonna have to publish comments under anonymous... but the loss was hard yesterday but hopefully cole will get us a win tomorrow...and today i got MLB gameday audio so i can listen to all the games instead of waiting for scores on TV!
-Kentucky Phils Phan
Nice grab Kentucky. We all need Phans across the country to support our boys.
And Ted, I supplied that kid with D sized duracells. Don't worry, his father approved of the pretzel throwing. He is on the right track indeed.
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