2004 Baseball

Orioles 7 Red Sox 2

Sunday Night
Camden Yards
With Jamie, Bill, Rick, Mitch, Mitch’s Dad

Way too cold. Stone Groove sat this one out so it was just Jamie and me who decided to brave the conditions. We met up with Bill and Rick after the 6th inning and finished the game in the box seats with Mr. MLB and his dad with the firm handshake.

Baseball should start on Monday afternoon in the bright sunshine. At the very least, it should start on Monday afternoon. The long suffering Orioles faithful turned out in full force for Opening Night. It was nice to see so many Oriole fans at this game. The past few years, Camden Yards has been chockful of opposing teams’ fans. In fact, two days later, I watched Curt Schilling dominate the Birds on T.V. and it sounded like the whole park was from Boston.

The night was too cold to fully enjoy the returns of Rafael Palmeiro and Sidney Ponson and the debuts of Javy Lopez and Miguel Tejada but it was nice anyway. The 43 homer hitting (in 2003) Lopez spanked a Pedro fastball for his first Oriole homerun right as I was in the midst of predicting that he would only hit about 22 homers in 2004. Jamie predicted he would hit 25. (He hit 23.) The new 3-4-5 hitters went a combined 7-11 with 4 RBI’s. An Opening Day victory is so sweet. The possibilities are endless. Maybe Ponson will win 17 games again. Maybe Eric Dubose will be this year’s Dave Johnson. Bedard for Rookie of the Year? Matt Riley dominates the league? Sadly, it will probably be a year with a lot of offense, a lot of blown leads in the middle to late innings, and a 4th place finish. (How about a 3rd place finish?)

An interesting tidbit- Apparently, new skipper Lee Mazilli has banned loud music in the clubhouse before games so Sir Sidney had to get his Metallica fix through headphones. I wonder if Art Howe will let Scott Erickson blast Lars and the boys in the few days that Erickson remains a Met.

From Jamie’s blog:

i've gotta stop going to early season games in outdoor parks in the northeast. sunday night's RedSox-Orioles game was in the high 20s with a whole lotta wind. just completely uncomfortable. the pretzels we bought outside the stadium were rock hard by the time we sat down to eat them. the grease from my cheesesteak congealed so fast that i almost couldn't finish it. after sitting for 6 innings, Dan and i were both amazed at how stiff our knees were when we got up to meet some other friends. Dan's grandmother kiddingly told him before the game to brink some whiskey - he really should have. still, it was nice to be at the opening game, but the temps at Shea next Monday better be a little more hospitable.

Posted by dan at April 4, 2004 06:53 PM