Well Worth The Wait

Man it's good to have real baseball back. Don't get me wrong. I love Spring Training but it can be sooo boring. Nothing beats Opening Day! Unfortunately for me, my 7 month old son Cooper chose tonight to throw a huge fit at bedtime. It was bad enough I had to pause the game after Wang got the 1st out to help give him a bath and then help put him to bed. But the little guy picked tonight, of all nights, to go absolutely berserk after finishing his nighttime bottle. We think he's teething. And I only minded a little. I love the little guy.

God bless DVR. I finally caught up to live action at about the midway point. I would fast forward and watched each pitch. I didn't think the Wanger was overly sharp but he was definitely good enough. He had his work cut out for him going up against Doc Halladay but he rose to the occasion and pitched a solid 7. Getting Rios to whiff was huge. And what was up with all the broken lumber? It was like watching Mariano out there. The defense definitely stepped up big for him. Melky made 2 great catches that could have turned things south real quick. He just missed making a 3rd stellar catch. I'm so glad that the Yanks didn't deal him (or Hughes and Kennedy) for Johan. He's great with the glove and his arm is just outstanding. You wouldn't get that from Damon. And Giambi! Dude is like a cat out there. It was quite the opposite of last year. Didn't Jeter make 2-3 errors and if i remember A-Rod dropped a pop up in foul territory? We didn't see that today. I guess these guys like Chien-Ming more than they do that scrub Pavano.

A-Rod and Abreu looked real good at the plate but Melky's at-bat against Halladay was the highlight of the night for me. I think it went 11 pitches and we all know how it ended up. It wasn't a bomb but he hit it far enough. Did I mention already that I'm glad they didn't trade him? And who would have thought you'd see great baserunning by Jason Giambi? He stops in the baseline and instead of a DP we get runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out. If he hadn't done that A-Rod likely doesn't score the go-ahead run. Am I giving the big G too much credit? Was it great baserunning or a crappy play by Eckstein? Since I'm a Yankees fan, I'll call it good baserunning.

Joba rules. I don't really need to say anything more about that but what kind of blogger would I be if I had no comments. I think he was a little amped up when he first took the hill and got a little too excited when he had 2 strikes on Rios. I was worried for about half a second and then I thought to myself "Joba rules." Then he picks up 2 huge Ks. Wells looking and the Big Hurt swinging. You gotta love it. I know I do.

I was extremely tempted to throw my remote at the TV after Jeter, Abreu and Giambi all grounded out weakly, wasting Damon's leadoff triple. But then I realized it's a nice TV, so I threw it at my wife instead. Hit her pretty hard too. April Fools.

Enter the Sandman. I get chills every time they show him walking through the bullpen doors with his back to the camera. I have a little 3 inch McFarlane figure of him on my desk at work. If you haven't seen it it's a miniature version of the big one, which is Mo walking through the bullpen doors. I have it turned around so the 42 is facing me. There's a signed photo that Steiner sells of him walking through the doors but I'm not made of money so I'll just stick with my little 3-inch toy. Mo looked great. Vintage Mo. Very fitting that the final opening day in the old Stadium ends with Mo picking up the save.

It was a day late in coming but it was well worth the wait. Solid game all around. 7 innings from the starter. Joba. Mariano. Yankees win! Thaaaaaa Yankees win!

Take it away Frank.

J-Boogie