Game 1 - Hello, Old Friend

First of all, I want to give a big Thank You to Kyra, my fantastic photographer for the day. She put up with my unrealistic expectations and didn’t complain one bit. Without her this whole entry would suck.

However, you can’t expect perfect teamwork on the first outing. There are a lot of good pictures, even some great ones, but also a couple missing that I hoped I would get, and some blurry ones I’m not going to include. This entry is pretty decent, but I hope future entries are even better!

What's a Ballhawk?

I attended my first game of the season on April 7th, but with all the time spent at the game and a busy Easter, I didn't get the chance to write. Most of the stuff and pictures I wanted to include are still at home. However, I feel like this entry needed to come first, so I guess it all worked out. 

One of the many reasons I think baseball is so great is how simple it is to literally bring home a piece of the action. Catching a foul ball is something every fan dreams about. It's the most sought after souvenir in all of sports. An average MLB ball sees only 7 pitches of live game action; at that rate, plenty of balls are left over for fans, right?

Yet most fans come close to taking home this prize only a few times in their life, and very few are actually successful and walk away with one. 

In my first entry (here), I mentioned a guy named Zack Hample. Zack is an avid baseball fan to say the least, and has been attending games since 1990. What makes Zack different is he has caught more balls than any person in Major League stadiums ever.  

First Week Highlights

The first week of the season is already over, and it’s great to have every team playing every day and getting the season into full swing.

• This Opening Week was the best in a while. In their season opener, the Indians and Blue Jays went SIXTEEN innings last Thursday. The Jays rallied for 3 in the 9th to tie it at 4-4, and got 3 more in the top of the 16th to win it 7-4. A brisk 5 hour and 14 minute game was the longest EVER on an Opening Day. It’s not too often you see a marathon like this, and it made it a lot more interesting that it was their first game.

• Jose Valverde blew his first save in 51 regular season chances in the Tigers opener against the Red Sox. He gave up 2 runs and spoiled 8 shutout innings from last year’s AL Cy Young winner Justin Verlander. The blown save cost Verlander a win, but Austin Jackson got the walk off RBI in the bottom of the inning to start off the Tigers season. It’s these first two bullets that make this one of my top Opening Days I can remember.
  
  
  

• Every year, without fail, some team jumps out to sweep the first series and fans and analysts alike are shocked and spend a lot of time asking ‘How?’. I was thinking about this all Easter weekend. (I didn’t happen to check standings or scores until Monday morning). And sure enough, the Rays triumphed, and were undefeated. They swept the Yankees in 3 games, but that's not why this is weird. What makes this interesting is the Red Sox are 0-3 as well, the first time both AL East powers were 0-3 since 1966, and only the second time ever.  It’s not a complete shocker though; the Rays have momentum from their amazing finish from last year, and for once, truly have some great talent. The starting pitching is some of the best in the league, as they built young talent behind David Price. Evan Longoria is leading the offense another year with some even more young, emerging talent in the lineup. As for the Red Sox- they're falling apart. They’re riding the negative wave from their collapse last September. If they didn’t pull one out against the Blue Jays last night, it would be the first time ever they started back to back seasons 0-4. I hope this division stays this interesting all year and the 2 evil empires finally fall.
   
• Ozzie. Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie. What the hell? If you haven’t read what first year Marlins manager said:

  "I respect Fidel Castro," Guillén is quoted as saying in an online article. "You know why? Many people have tried to kill Fidel Castro in the last 60 years, yet that [SOB] is still there."

  Guillen is famously known for his…opinionated personality and comments. First of all, something like this is NEVER appropriate. How did this even come up in a pre-game interview? Why was this necessary? I’m dumbfounded he would even go there. He’s said some stupid things before, but this is taking it to a new level. Secondly, YOU’RE MANAGING IN MIAMI NOW. Roughly 25% of the city’s residents are Cuban, and many families were probably somehow effected by Castro’s rule in some way.  Don’t ever praise a dictator and next time pay attention to what city you work in and have some common sense. I feel bad for the people in Miami and Cubans who were offended, but in the end I laughed at his mistake. This is the worst thing he’s said that I can remember. It didn’t even take him a full week of the season, and he’s already apologizing. (And serving a 5 game suspension, I just heard. Nice.)

• Yu ain’t lookin’ so good, Darvish. (I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw that cheesy headline somewhere on the internet). The Rangers $101 million ($60 million just for the right to talk to the guy) man didn't exactly have the start anyone was expecting. He was mowing guys down in Japan during his first 7 seasons of professional ball; 1249 strikeouts and a 1.99 ERA. The Mariners batters didn't seem to care though. They pounced on Darvish for 4 runs in the first inning, making him throw 42 pitches. The Rangers are lucky they have the best offense in the league, otherwise this would have been a total bust. Darvish calmed down and pitched into the 6th, and the Rangers came back to win 11-5. Some scouts said he’s the best player to ever come out of the far East, but I don’t buy that for a second. What happened to Dice-K? After that failed career, I decided to never listen to the scouts again about Japanese players. The game is played differently over here, and America is home of the best players in the world. The culture adjustment makes it much more stressful too. Imagine yourself in Japan, knowing nothing that’s going on, in addition to all the pressure. This isn’t the home these players are used to, and in my opinion, if they live up to any of the hype past their first few years, they just got really lucky.

I had fun following these stories this first week, and I hope there’s more to come!

Opening Day in Miami

Tomorrow night, the newly named Miami Marlins open their season in their brand new ballpark against the defending World Series champion St.Louis Cardinals.

It’s always exciting to have a new park in the league. Each team gets to see it for the first time this season, then determines the strengths and weaknesses. Eventually there will be a book or report that teams can look at and get a pretty good feel for what type of building they’re playing in.

This new place was a long time coming. For some reason, the Marlins were neglected by the city by having a terrible stadium and virtually no fan support, even though they were the most successful with two World Series titles in their first 10 years of existence.