2:00 — Unfortunately, there are only two games going on right now. Or maybe it’s fortunate, so I can follow each one better.
2:06 — So if there exists a baseball-themed ad for Esurance.com, why did I see their basketball-themed ad several times already today during other baseball games?
2:15 — DirecTV is offering a fight on Saturday night on pay-per-view for $24.95, “or,” as the announcer says, “as part of your regular Showtime subscription.” Showtime is $12 per month, with only a one-month-at-a-time commitment.
2:19 — The Aflac trivia question on NESN is “Other than Schilling, Martinez, and Clemens, who was the last Sox pitcher with back-to-back Opening Day starts?” If you have to qualify it that much, perhaps you should find another way to ask the question, or perhaps you should ask a different question.
2:20 — You can tell it’s a little windy in Kansas City when the fountain water gets blown into the shot from the centerfield cameras.
2:23 — Hey, it’s a pinball-themed Pepsi commercial, which makes me want to play pinball more than it makes me want to drink Pepsi.
2:26 — I happen to see on the ESPN ticker that the Tribune Company is going to be getting rid of the Cubs at the end of the season. So let me be the first to predict a World Series victory in 2008. Yes, for the 100th anniversary of the last one.
2:30 — The answer to that trivia question is Dennis Eckersley, who pitched on back-to-back Opening Days in 1982 and 1983 — actually, he was the Opening Day starter from 1979 through 1983.
2:34 — NESN’s score bar is bugging me because the number of outs isn’t right next to the inning count. As far as I’m concerned, the number of outs is very closely related to the inning count. Compare ESPN’s version, which is better.
You can also see the batter a lot better on ESPN, at the cost of the grass looking really, really bright.
2:49 — Eric Byrnes of the Diamondbacks makes a throw from right field with such force that he winds up doing a somersault. It’s very impressive.
2:54 — Apparently, the fountains at Kaufmann Stadium were “worked on” over the winter, so it’s no wonder they’re getting in the way of the camera shots.
2:59 — Southwest Airlines has new nonstop service from Denver to Tampa starting in May. Except they say “Tampa Bay” in the commercial, which would seem to indicate that they’re using a floatplane, given that Tampa Bay is a body of water. I think I complained about this last year, but this time I have a screenshot as evidence.
Tag: cubs
Opening Day 2007: Hour 3
12:00 — Salsa, chips, and cheese — lunch of champions!
12:07 — Say what you will about TBS, I enjoy their “scorecard” graphics.
12:09 — On WGN, they’re interviewing Cubs general manager Jim Hendry, who at one point refers to baseball as “the industry,” which is just a horrible way to refer to baseball, although I’m sure it feels like it from his perspective.
12:16 — Hey, Ken Griffey Jr. is in right field for the Reds! He’s still around?
12:17 — The Reds catcher still has the old Mr. Redlegs design on his mask (well, the old new Mr. Redlegs design, without a mustache, which has now been replaced by the new old Mr. Redlegs design).
12:20 — Ah, the Midwest!
12:25 — Mrs. Owner of the Dodgers is being interviewed at hipster hangout named Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood, where I’ve been once. Various Dodgers people went to various establishments today to watch the game with the fans. Given the game action on the TVs in the background, I can tell that this interview is not airing live.
12:32 — A woman with a loud and high-pitched voice is sitting very close to a microphone that TBS is using to capture crowd noise, and she’s cheering for Tom Gordon: “Come on, Flash!”
12:41 — At this moment, both the Braves-Phillies and Blue Jays-Tigers games are tied at 3 with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th.
12:44 — At this moment, a cat has jumped onto my lap to watch her beloved Tigers.
12:49 — Tigers and Blue Jays go into extra innings. The Braves-Phillies game already went into extra innings, while I wasn’t paying attention.
12:54 — Bud Selig is in the booth at the White Sox-Indians game. Hawk Harrelson tells him he’s the best commissioner since 1959, with the late Bowie Kuhn second. Uh-huh.
12:57 — W.B. Mason has helpfully added “Office Supplies” to their outfield wall advertising this year. Now we can assume that things there are just like they are at Dunder Mifflin, as seen on TV’s “The Office.”
Opening Day 2007: Hour 2
11:00 — Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati Reds (ESPN 2, WGN, and FSN Ohio)
L.A. Dodgers at Milwaukee Brewers (FSN Prime Ticket)
Cleveland Indians at Chicago White Sox (Comcast SportsNet Chicago)
11:01 — Vin Scully! “And a pleasant good day to you wherever you may be.” Now it really is baseball season.
11:13 — Hey, a new family movie starring Ice Cube! Looks about as good as the Devil Rays.
11:15 — There sure are a lot of car commercials on YES. But I thought no one in New York drove.
11:19 — The Blue Jays caps have a “T” instead of a “J,” I notice. Too bad, because I liked the “J.” Maybe that’s still the home cap.
11:21 — Two female fans in the upper deck of Comerica Park are interviewed. One of them refers to it as “Tiger Stadium” and is quickly corrected by the interviewer.
11:24 — Since the Reds are wearing their new mustachioed Mr. Redlegs patches, perhaps they should all have grown mustaches to match.
11:25 — The Superstation WGN Scoreboard graphic has a problem, I say.
I contend that “Sponsored By:” should either be right-justified so it’s against the sponsor graphic, or that graphic should say “Sponsored by Scotts” (which would work fine even with the graphic there on the right).
11:29 — C.C. Sabathia looks a little large.
11:31 — The White Sox announcers start talking about how one should not judge a book by its cover when it comes to C.C. Sabathia. I guess I’ve been properly chastised! However, Darin Erstad promptly hit a 2-run homer off him to pull the White Sox to within 3 runs in the bottom of the 1st.
11:37 — Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley is in the stands at U.S. Cellular Field, but does not have to be interviewed by someone with a radio mike.
11:39 — The Yankees infield has been a bit error-prone today, which has helped the Devil Rays tie.
11:40 — First appearance of Joe Maddon, coming out for an explanation from the umpire about a player being called out on a bunt that hits him in fair territory.
11:42 — Rocco Baldelli hits an RBI single, and the Devil Rays are leading.
11:44 — Amtrak — the Washington Nationals of transportation!
11:49 — Hey, Dr. Cox from “Scrubs” is in that movie with Ice Cube. Well, John C. McGinley, I mean. I assume he’s not playing the same character he plays on “Scrubs.” Not to be confused with John C. Reilly, who is not to be confused with Andy Richter, who is not to be confused with John Candy.
11:54 — Comcast SportsNet’s “Scores on the Fours” should perhaps be renamed “Scores on Most But Not All of the Fours.”
The predictions
Yes, my Sports Illustrated baseball preview issue arrived a week ago, but their predictions were printed on a dark green background in white text that came out a little blurry in my copy. And that’s why it’s taken me so long to post these!
Also, I realize I haven’t yet used Bill James’s quick-and-dirty prediction formula as I’ve done previously.
| Sports Illustrated | Bill James formula |
| AL East | |
| 1. N.Y. Yankees | 1. N.Y. Yankees (96-66) |
| 2. Boston Red Sox | 2. Boston Red Sox (89-73) |
| 3. Toronto Blue Jays | 3. Toronto Blue Jays (85-77) |
| 4. Baltimore Orioles | 4. Baltimore Orioles (71-91) |
| 5. Tampa Bay Devil Rays | 5. Tampa Bay Devil Rays (63-99) |
| AL Central | |
| 1. Cleveland Indians | 1. Chicago White Sox (93-69) |
| 2. Detroit Tigers | 2. Minnesota Twins (92-70) |
| 3. Chicago White Sox | 3. Detroit Tigers (87-75) |
| 4. Minnesota Twins | 4. Cleveland Indians (83-79) |
| 5. Kansas City Royals | 5. Kansas City Royals (60-102) |
| AL West | |
| 1. L.A. Angels | 1. L.A. Angels (91-71) |
| 2. Oakland Athletics | 1. Oakland Athletics (91-71) |
| 3. Texas Rangers | 3. Texas Rangers (80-82) |
| 4. Seattle Mariners | 4. Seattle Mariners (75-87) |
| NL East | |
| 1. N.Y. Mets | 1. N.Y. Mets (92-70) |
| 2. Atlanta Braves | 2. Philadelphia Phillies (86-76) |
| 3. Philadelphia Phillies | 3. Atlanta Braves (83-79) |
| 4. Florida Marlins | 4. Florida Marlins (80-82) |
| 5. Washington Nationals | 5. Washington Nationals (74-88) |
| NL Central | |
| 1. St. Louis Cardinals | 1. St. Louis Cardinals (89-73) |
| 2. Chicago Cubs | 2. Houston Astros (84-78) |
| 3. Milwaukee Brewers | 3. Cincinnati Reds (78-84) |
| 4. Houston Astros | 4. Milwaukee Brewers (77-85) |
| 5. Pittsburgh Pirates | 5. Chicago Cubs (70-92) |
| 6. Cincinnati Reds | 6. Pittsburgh Pirates (67-95) |
| NL West | |
| 1. L.A. Dodgers | 1. San Diego Padres (86-76) |
| 2. Arizona Diamondbacks | 2. L.A. Dodgers (82-80) |
| 3. San Diego Padres | 3. Arizona Diamondbacks (76-86) |
| 4. Colorado Rockies | 3. San Francisco Giants (76-86) |
| 5. San Francisco Giants | 5. Colorado Rockies (73-89) |
The biggest surprise in the Sports Illustrated predictions is the position of the Cubs, but I guess that’s the eternal optimism for you.
Their World Series pick is for a freeway series, Angels over the Dodgers. Incidentally, they’ve changed the parking procedures at Dodger Stadium this year (and raised the parking rate from $10 to $15 in the process), so any late-arriving fans can be ascribed to the parking attendants not knowing what they’re doing, rather than the usual apathy.
My schedule is clear for Monday and MLB Extra Innings will definitely be on DirecTV, if nowhere else, so I’m ready for another year of Opening Day blogging.
(Note primarily to myself for future reference: here’s how I fixed the problem with the
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table.)
Wrigley Field has been around a long time
From YouTube, via the Uni Watch blog, here’s six and a half minutes of home movie footage shot at Wrigley Field. It starts off with 1930 Flag Day ceremonies prior to a game against the Boston Braves, including the raising of a 1929 NL championship pennant,
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Losing baseball
Some notes from last night’s Cubs-Pirates game, which featured the two worst teams in the league performing a sloppy “After you”/”No, I insist”/”No, no, you first”/”Well, if you insist, I’ll muff this bunt” routine to see who would get the privilege of losing: 1) In my shoulder bag was a grocery sack of sage from Stacey’s garden for my seatmate, Michelle. The bag inspector at the gate looked at it askance. BI: “What’s that?” Me: Sage.” BI:”What?” Me: “Sage. It’s from a garden, for my seatmate.” BI: “What?” Me: “Sage.” BI:”Like you put on food?” Me:”Yeah. You can smell it.” [BI Smells it. Makes a face.] BI: “I’m gonna have to ask about this.” Me: [Astonished] “You’re kidding. Really. You’re not serious.” BI: “I am, too.” She called her manager over, he took one look at it and, presumably deciding that I could neither blow up the stadium with it nor injure anyone by throwing it at them, waved me into the park. 2) During the game, the season ticket holders who sit in my section–those who bothered to attend, that is–had a discussion of whether this is the worst Cubs team we’ve had to watch. I’ve been attending games at Wrigley Field since 1993, and I’ve had season tickets since 1999, and I, like all the rest, weighed in with a resounding “Yes.” You could argue that the 1997 team was worse, but it at least had Sammy Sosa doing his strikeout/homer/strikeout routine. This team didn’t even have Derrek Lee for most of the year, and Ryan Theriot’s remarkable mustache can only go so far towards making up for such bad baseball. 3) The good thing about the Cubs suffering through their third straight disappointing (and second straight flat-out bad) season is that the fair-weather fans are starting to see the storm clouds. The announced attendance for last night’s game was only 32,000 or so, way down from the 40,000+ the Cubs were drawing earlier in the year. But I’d be surprised if the actual attendance was half that. In the center field bleachers the night before, the cameramen had shown a guy stretched out flat, sleeping, and he could have easily reprised his nap in any section of the bleachers last night. Meanwhile, there were only about five beer vendors working the whole of the upper deck, and nary a Super Ropes guy in sight. It’s kinda nice to be able to stretch out a little again. It reminds me of the wonderful days of 1997, pre-Kerry Wood and that first wild card run, when you
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could decide to go to the game day of, with three or four friends, buy upper deck tickets and sit pretty much anywhere. So for all you folks who love Wrigley Field but have given up on attending in recent years–I’m looking at you, Bob and Luke–this is your warning: the glory days may soon be back. Start practicing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” 4) Then, in the 8th of what had been a forgettable ballgame, Matt Capps hung a curve to Derrek Lee, who immediately reminded him of why his pitching coach had advised against such behavior. It was a beautiful night in a beautiful ballpark, and that moment was a good reminder of why we were there.
Gary Bennett, the gods have chosen to smile on thee
After Gary Bennett‘s out-of-nowhere performance against the Cubs this weekend (.700/.750/.833, with a homer and a game-winning single Saturday and a game-winning grand slam Sunday night), I hope each player on the Cardinals roster–including the guys on the DL–bought him a stiff drink last night.
And then I hope he staggered around the bar, drunk as a lord, shouting, “Don’t you mess with me–I’m freaking Mike Piazza!”
Fun at the old ballpark
Seconds ago, as I was sitting in my kitchen editing a post for my other blog, listening to the Cubs play the Rockies, I heard the following exchange between Pat Hughes, Ron Santo, and a surprise mystery guest:
Pat Hughes: Colorado has eight runs on twelve hits and one error, though I think the scorer might change that one.
Ron Santo: Yeah, I think he might.
Official Scorer (in background): I’m not gonna change it.
That’s why I listen to the Cubs even when they’re 48-67.
Notes on a gray Saturday
1) On the broadcast of today’s Cubs/Padres game:
Pat Hughes: Be careful with this guy, Ron: he spells his name Cla–no “y,” but it’s pronounced “Clay.” I thought it was a mistake. It disturbed me. I couldn’t sleep last night. These things are important.
Ron Santo: You’re bothered a lot of the time, aren’t you?
Pat Hughes: Can’t you tell?
2) Cardnilly heard two people in the stands at Busch Stadium talking about Juan Encarnacion:
Inmate-looking guy [re-emerging from the concourse]: Say, who hit that last home run?
Mildly frightened bystander: Oh, one of the new guys. I forget his name…
ILG: Was it Incarceration?
MFB: Yep. That was the guy.
3) Operation Shutdown may be over, unless Derek Bell can talk the judicial system into letting him continue his workless protest.
4) Pedro has a green thumb. Now if only he’d grow out his hair again, I could wholeheartedly root for him.
5) Congratulations to Jim, who made the 600th post to this blog earlier in the week.
My first game of 2006
Yes, Dodger Stadium has new seats this season, in lovely pastel colors which really do look like they’re from 1962. They also renumbered the seats, so that instead of having aisle numbers, with seats starting at “1” on one side and “101” on the other side, the reserved level now has section numbers like a normal stadium. (Things were even weirder on the field and loge levels, with one row letter covering two rows, one with seat numbers increasing and the other with seat numbers decreasing — presumably,
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that situation has been dealt with as well.)
Yes, quite a few Chicagoites will show up at Dodger Stadium when the Cubs are in town, wearing the world’s cutest baseball cap…
Someone near us had a radio, so I know that Vin Scully described 6-foot-7 Cubs pitcher Sean Marshall as “a tall drink of water”…
This game had something for everyone, from bone-jarring collisions to wildly errant throws. Best of all, though, is the fact that the Dodger Stadium music selection committee has provided the world with a new, particularly appropriate song to play for bases on balls: Tegan and Sara’s “Walking with a Ghost,” in the form of the White Stripes’ cover version. Why is it particularly appropriate? Because walks haunt.
