Opening Day Blogging

Having not subjected you to a post here in over a week, I've got a number of thoughts to pass along. However, it's Opening Day. Does anything else really matter? Oh, some might think so, but they would be horribly misguided.

This is going to be my first attempt at live blogging. O.k., semi-live blogging, but you get the idea. (Think NBC Olympic coverage.)

12:59 pm- The hot dogs are cooking and the Washington vs. New York Mets game is first up. I've got MLB Extra Innings again this year, so I'll be flipping channels. Hope that doesn't bother you.

1:01 pm- Do I have any Mets or Nats on my fantasy league teams? I'm in four fantasy leagues this year. One doesn't really require much brain power from me, as I'm running the Arizona Diamondbacks. I have all their players and I cannot acquire anyone not in purple and teal.

1:06 pm- Mets are starting Tom Glavine. I've always been a Glavine fan, he's one of my all-time favorite pitchers, but if he's the Mets second best starter, they might be in trouble. Glavine isn't exactly close to his peak. Which feed do I watch: Mets coverage with Keith Hernandez (another of my all-time favorite players) with some guy I don't know or the ESPN feed with Chris "Back, Back, Back" Berman and Jeff Brantley? Hmmm.

1:12- I've got Gary Majewski and Jose Guillen on different fantasy teams.

1:15- Glavine K's Jose Vidro.

1:17- Glavine gets Guillen to fly out. A flip of the channel reveals that we have three two o'clock starts--Red Sox @ Rangers, Pirates @ Brewers and Cubs @ Reds.

1:22- First hot dog of the season. Mustard only, thank you.

1:25- Second time I've seen the Lou Diamond Phillips PSA. Lou is wondering if we know what our children learned in math class. Nice of Mr. Phillips to care.

1:27- Mets 2B Anderson Hernandez makes a sparkling backhanded play.

1:28- I love those Washington road uniforms. Caps are even better.

1:30- Alfonso Soriano steals second proving I should have drafted him. Mets catcher Paul LoDuca drops his glove and the ball attempting to throw out Soriano. Strange.

1:33- Did Jeff Brantley just use the term "hisself" instead of "himself" about three consecutive times or is my hearing getting worse?

1:45- Flip on light in kitchen, blow fuse. It happens to be the same fuse the television is on. Uh oh.

1:50- All is fine. TV is working, light bulb in kitchen is replaced.

1:58- It looks like Glavine's batting helmet is two tone. The helmet appears to be primarly black with a large blue portion in front where the NY sits. The blue portion flares out towards the back and fades into the black. It almost looks like a Marvel superhero mask design. (I'm more a DC Comics man, myself.) Oh, Glavine singles.

2:00- Flip to Red Sox @ Rangers. No satellite feed as of yet.

2:01- Paul LoDuca singles in Xavier Nady. We have scoring! Soriano misses catching the ball on the hop as he tries, unsuccessfully, to grab the ball with his bare hand. No damage done as his centerfield is behind him. I think we can assume Soriano will commit nearly as many errors in the outfield as he did in the infield.

2:02-Back to Sox @ Rangers. MLB Extra Innings is having technical trouble with the feed. Pirates at Brewers is up and running as is Cubs @ Reds.

2:05- President Bush is in the Reds dugout. He's wearing a Reds jacket. His ceremonial toss is high and outside.

2:08- Sox @ Rangers is on ESPN2. Steve Stone is doing the game, which I consider to be a bonus. Finally, a game in bright sunshine! I'm probably all but done with Nationals at Mets.

2:15- David Ortiz flys out, channel flip follows. Carlos Lee misplays a flyball that nearly plunks him on the melon. Another channel flip. Todd Walker drives in Juan Pierre, Cubs, 1-0. I have to stay with Cubs/Reds game as Derek Lee is coming up. Yeah, I've got Lee on one of my fantasy teams. Hey, it's a sixteen team league. Lee is vital to my success. Anyway, his at bat is uneventful.

2:26- Back to Texas. Manny Ramirez is a blonde today. Seems appropriate.

2:30- A Roger Clemens sighting. The Rocket is in Arlington taking in the game between two of his rumored suitors.

2:32- Prince Fielder fans on three pitches. Did I mention I flipped over to the Bucs/Brew Crew game? No? Sorry.

2:40- Debating second hot dog.

3:00- Second hot dog? Long gone. Tampa @ Baltimore joins the fun.

3:05- Jason Varitek doubles in two Red Sox runs.

3:07- Pondering when to don my Tigers road jersey.

3:15- Tigers road jersey is on.

3:30- Flipping through Detroit Free Press Tigers Preview. There seems to be three repeating themes. Verlander, Zumaya and Leyland. Big Papi goes deep-Red Sox, 5-0. Schilling has looked good.

3:34- Channel flipping finds Johnny Gomes homering for Tampa. It's the D-Rays, 2-0.

3:45- Over to Tigers pre-game. The Detroit lineup is being introduced to the K.C. faithful. Pudge looks like he has lost more weight.

3:50- I wonder if I'll get the LA feed of the Dodgers vs. Atlanta game? I'd like to hear Vin Scully on Opening Day.

4:05- Tigers game heads to commercial break before first pitch. I may be gone for a while.

Ok, it's now 5:57 pm. The Tigers are up 2-1 behind two Chris Shelton homeruns. The Tigs have just chased Scott Elarton from the hill. Kenny Rogers has looked pretty good today. By the way, I still want to visit Kauffman Stadium someday.

In other things that happened while I was gone, I received an MLB.com catalog in the mail today. Nice timing on their part. I flipped through all the other games and found most to favor the hitters today. I did indeed get the L.A. feed, so I heard Vin Scully for the first time in '06. Red Sox won. Derek Lee has driven in two for the Cubbies. Did I mention I've got Shelton in a 12 team fantasy league I'm in?

I think I'm going to stop my plausibly live blogging here. I hope to stick with the Tigers game until the end and I've got about three other things I need to do today, so that will be it for this post. Thanks for reading.