Disappointment On Opening Day

Along with millions of loyal baseball fans, I sat around wallowing in misery all winter waiting for baseball season to start. I sat in class and thought about who would start in the outfield for the Braves, whether Tampa Bay was ready to make another playoff run, and if the White Sox could put together a seventy win season in a weak division. After countless hours of baseball daydreaming, I was thrilled when April finally arrived. Yesterday I couldn't help but feel the holy wonder of the most sacred day on our calender, and Easter was nice too.

At 8:05, the first pitch was finally thrown. In typical fashion, ESPN showcased the two teams with the highest payrolls in baseball. This year they even got their own day, starting before the twenty-eight teams that we see on TV about once a year. Boston and New York, the most publicized rivalry in sports, opened the season with nine innings of batting practice. After all of the weeks and months of anticipation, baseball fans were subjected to a terrible excuse for a baseball game.

CC Sabathia looked good in the first couple innings and I hoped to see a decent pitchers' duel. He ended up going five and a third and giving up five earned runs. Josh Beckett was even worse, giving up five runs and not even getting through five innings. At least he walked three. And then today the news that he just signed a 68 million dollar deal came out. Eighty-four year old Chan Ho Park also had a bad outing, giving up the Dustin Pedroia home run that changed the pace of the game.

Anyway, the pitching and defense were pathetic. The Yankees even pulled off the infamous double steal play that works occasionally against eleven year olds. Victor Martinez came up firing as Jeter stole second in the fourth, and Marco Scutaro looked lost as Brett Gardner raced home. I hope Francona was embarrassed that his team was caught so completely flat footed by the little league play. Any high school coach would have been. The Yankees defense wasn't exactly October ready either. Nick Swisher, who I hear is a great guy in the club house, looked lost in right field on a Kevin Youkilis base hit.

Angel Hernandez wouldn't let the pitching and fielding be the only things that were subpar. He made two bad calls at first, but he didn't manage to change the outcome of the game. Still, it seems he's been the culprit everytime I've seen a bad call over the last couple years.

There were a few bright spots last night. J.D. Drew made a nice play in right to hold Robinson Cano to a single. Kevin Youkilis tabbed seven total bases in four at bats. Posada and Pedroia both homered, and Posada had a three hit day. A-Rod hit a double high off the monster. Okajima, Bard, and Papelbon looked good in the last three innings of the game.

Still, I was really disappointted and I hope to see some decent baseball tonight. But thank you, Major League Baseball, for an ugly sixteen run publicity stunt a day before the good baseball starts.