2008 Opening Day Live Blog

Kansas City Royals vs Detroit Tigers. Channel 43.
I missed the first batter because I was taking out garbage. Stinky kitchens are no good, and I'll miss a first pitch to fix a stinky kitchen situation every time.

Justin Verlander on the mound for the Tigers. He's looking pretty solid, but it is only the first inning.

Mark Grudzielanek reached first when the first baseman bobbled the catch. Actually, Grudzy's name is so long his uniform reached base thirty seconds before he did. Not really? Okay.

Blue Jays vs New York Yankees. Channel 22.
...Rain delay?! What the fork? Oh well. This'll make my channel flipping a much easier thing to deal with.

Channel 43.
Gil Meche on the mound for the Royals. The Royals are full of questions marks, each of which will be answered by the end of the season. Meche himself is a question mark. Will he have a good season? A poor one? He had a surprisingly good season last year, but he was only so-so with Seattle prior to that. Of course, much of his performance will rely on how well the rest of the team hits and fields, and much of that is as questionable as Meche is. It's a big confusing circle.

Meche unquestionably walked Gary Sheffield (who I hear is a pleasant and agreeable person) and gives up a single to the Big Tilde.
I'm also paying close attention to Meche because he's on my fantasy baseball team. But none of you would care about that so I won't mention it again.

Channel 22.
Rain delay.

Channel 43.
The first and third base coaches look dumb in helmets. It's one thing to voluntarily wear the helmet. Colorado first base coach Glenallen Hill was the first to don a helmet following the death of a minor league coach, and I applaud him for it. But an isolated incident shouldn't be the basis for a rule that requires coaches to wear a helmet. Silly. And probably uncomfortable. A few agree.

ANYWAY
Bottom of the second, Carlos Guillen on second, and Meche striking the crap out of Ivan Rodriguez.

Detroit's going to be good this year. I'm already awarding them the AL Central title. The Royals... like I mentioned before, I just don't know. And since I don't know I think it's okay to be optimistic about the team. Not TOO optimistic, but they'll certainly be better than the last couple seasons. Right now they're battling with the Orioles for the status of "American League Punchline". If the Royals are solid enough this season then maybe they'll be omitted from that contention.

Meche walked another. Two walks, two innings.
Edgar Rentaria + single up the middle = first Tiger run of the 2008 season.

Channel 22.
Rain Delay.

Channel 43.
Commercials.
Why is the TV flickering? I don't know if the signal is bad, if the TV crew in Detroit doesn't know how to properly use an outlet, or if somebody on my floor is running a vaccum. How annoying.

I'm eating a bowl of noodles. The spicy chinese kind you make with boiling water. It's pretty good.

That half-inning came and went. It was unremarkable. Verlander struck somebody out. Three for him. Three strikeouts in three innings.

Meche back on the mound, striking out an overly upset Gary Sheffield. Magglio enacts Sheff's revenge by doubling to right. His hair might be disgusting, but his swing is a very pretty thing.

Miguel Cabrera, fresh from Florida. I'll be keeping an eye on him this season. I'll also be keeping an eye on Dontrelle Willis who came to Detroit from Florida as part of that same deal. I don't even remember who the other players involved were.

Groundout, by the way.
Two down, bottom of the third.

Carlos Guillen... another hit! A single to right. Magglio chugging around third. Chugging... chugging... still chugging... good grief he's slow. Thrown out at the plate by ten feet.
New inning.

Channel 22.
Spicy Baconater commercial. Those things are pretty good. It's the jalapenos that make them noticeably spicy, but unfortunately I don't like the taste of jalapenos. The rest of the burger is great, but if I brush off the jalapenos, what's the point?

Rain delay continues.

Channel 43.
Grudz on first base again. How did that happen? He looks a bit shaken up. What happened??

In Grudzy's first at bat, the one where the first baseman dropped the ball, they bumped into each other. If there's going to be an incident every time Grudzielanek reaches first base then he's in for a long season.

Oh. Hit by pitch. Grimace explained.

The Royals, by the way, have yet to get a hit. Top of the fourth. One down thanks to Alex Gordon hitting into a fielder's choice. Grudzy's free to nurse his boo-boos in the dugout.

The Royals have a Jose Guillen. The Tigers have a Carlos Guillen. Jose strikes out. Carlos points and laughs.

Bob Dylan has a great song called "Catfish". It's about Catfish Hunter and is probably the only song ever to mention Charles O. Finley. Check it out.

Bottom of the fourth time.

Channel 22.
Large white tarp covering Yankee Stadium's infield. How depressing.

Channel 43.
Since 1901 which team has played the Tigers the most times in Detroit on opening day? The Afflac duck tells me it's the Indians.

Ivan Rodriguez (or Pudge-Rod) singles to center.

Jacque Jones at bat. Cubbie last year. Tiger this year. It's like he's a fully grown animal now. Strikes out like a big freaking baby, though.

Bottom of the fourth, one out. Tigers up 1 to 0.
It looks really gray in Detroit. Gray and cold. That makes since because Detroit is two hours west of here, and here it's gray and cold.

Brandon Inge up, whose name sounds and looks like a suffix. Doubles like a suffix.

Doesn't look good for the Mecher. He's given up seven hits in under four pitched innings. So far he's been fortunate to have only allowed one run, but I'm not sure he'll get out of this one cleanly. Especially after WALKING A MAN TO LOAD THE BASES. Still one out.

Placido Polanco looking to blast things open. That man has a huge head. Look at it next time he has his hat off.

Wow. PP flied (flew?) out to Jose Guillen in right field. Pudge couldn't tag up and score from third because Guillen fired that thing right back to home plate. Good show. Two down.

Gary and his Field of Sheff at the plate.
FULL COUNT. BASES LOADED.
...the pitch...
...it's...
...
...low. Ball four. Add one run.

Tigers 2.
Royals 0.

The Royals got a hit last half-inning. I forgot to mention that. Billy Butler with KC's first hit of the season.

Anyway, Magglio Ordonez, who is a terrifically awesome hitter, will probably hit a grand slam here.

...Pop fly to left. But he was thinking about it.

And how in the world did Gil Meche get out of that crap with only one earned run?! Meche: the luckiest man in baseball.

Channel 22.
Game officially postponed. I'm sure the Yankee fans would riot, but the rain probably wouldn't do much for the mob fires.

Channel... oh, wait. They're just showing the KC/Detroit game on this channel now. This is great because this channel doesn't flicker. I win.

John Buck at bat for the Royals.
John Buck struck out for the Royals.
Verlander really is averaging a strikeout an inning.

The ump just gave the Royal bench a warning. Probably arguing balls and strikes. Probably unnecessary whining.

Strikeout number six. So much for the one-strikeout-one-inning ratio.

I'm obviously not calling every play and every out and every pitch. Check a box for that stuff.

Bottom of the fifth.

Miguel Cabrera... with Detroit's first homer of the season.
...with his first homer as a Tiger.
...with his first American League homer.

Tigers 3
Royals 0

Good grief. Pudge hit it all the way to the track. Had it been down the line it might've gone out. Perhaps this is why Brett Tomko is warming up in the bullpen.

Quick inning otherwise.
Top of the sixth.

I've got the TV volume turned low and the media player volume turned high (hence the random mentioning of the Bob Dylan tune a while ago). Just thought you should know, and I'll mention any other interesting songs that randomly come up.

The best and worst thing about these noodle bowls are the completely bizarre things you'll find in them. Like this... it looks like Lisa Simpson's head with a red spiral in it. I have no idea.

Grudzielanek at bat for KC. Probably about to hurt himself somehow.
Non! A base hit. Just the second for the Royals.

There's only been one opening day no-hitter. Bob Feller for the Indians against the White Sox. 1940. Those things don't happen very often.

WOWIE. Alex Gordon just beat the cheese out of the ball. Homer deep to right. Suddenly the Royals are back in this.

Tigers 3
Royals 2

Royals with only three hits but with two runs. Compare that to the Tigers EIGHT hits, but three runs.

Bottom of the... where are we? Fifth? Sixth.

Meche is still in there (as he gives up a deep popfly out to Inge), but I suspect that if he gets into the trouble he saw last inning they'll probably pull him.

Another quick popfly out. Two down.

Have I been spelling "popfly" consistently? "Pop fly" vs "popfly". From now on it's one word.

Pop... I mean, GROUNDball out. That was quick.

Top seventh.

Neat. There's a sweet statue of a sliding Ty Cobb outside ComericA (no typo) Stadium. I don't doubt that statue will find some way to spike a second baseman somewhere.

Verlander's getting close to the 100-pitch mark. I don't know if he'll be back next inning or not, especially now that there are runners on first and third. Yeah, I don't know how it happened either.

...And now there'll be a pitching change. Let's all welcome Jason Grilli.

John Buck with a basehit. Tie ballgame. He took some hefty empty cuts, but finally he connected roundly enough to poke a single to left.

Tigers 3
Royals 3

Top seventh (still), NO OUTS, KC runners on first and second.

Tony Pena, Jr., at bat trying hard to bunt the ball. Foul. Foul X2. He'll have to swing now. He might as well have kept bunting. All he did was get the runner at first out in a rundown. We call that a fielder's choice. We call that a big waste of time.

Still a man on first, still a man on third. One out.

Pitching change. Good work, Grilli. I guess.

Now on the mound, Bobby Seay. A lefty to face lefty Joey Gathright. Gentle fly to short.

Pitching change. Good work, Seay. I guess.

Now on the mound, Aquilino Lopez. Who? He pitched 17 innings last year, none of which I saw. Grudz must have been watching the video, though, 'cause he just single to center like it was nothing. Go-ahead run.

Tigers 3
Royals 4

Alex Gordon pops to end the inning.
This game is turning out to be a little bit exciting.

Bottom seventh.

Brett Tomko now pitching for the Royals. I thought maybe Meche might come back, but that long Royal rally probably didn't help things. Also I have no idea how many pitches Meche threw.

Full count on Sheff. Ball four. Walk. Three walks for Gary. Give the man a pitch to hit.

Magglio up again. Grounds into a double play.

Miguel Cabrera at bat. Homered last time just because he wanted to. Stikes out this time. Just because he wanted to.

Top of the eighth.

Aquilino still pitching for Detroit.
One pop out.
Two pop outs.

Teahen slaps one to the gap and has the Royals' first triple of 2008.

...All for naught, though, as Ross Gload grounds out.

Bottom of the eighth.

Tomko, still in.
Carlos Guillen... way out. WAAAY out. To deep right.

Detroit 4
Royals 4

If I poked my head out the window I could probably hear the crowd cheering from Detroit. Not really.

Two outs.
I wasn't paying attention. WW, as it were.

Beach balls in center field. Stop that.

Strike three, Inge out.

Top nine.

Todd "Handlebar moustache man" Jones now pitching. I guess the Tigers are expecting to close this one out in the bottom of the ninth or something. Ninth or tenth. Either way Jones usually makes things interesting.

John Buck is just hackin' and hackin'. Like, with his bat. If he was coughing that'd be pretty gross. Let's see if he can keep one fair, though.

He does, and it's a dinky little ground out.

TP, Jr., just strike threed on a pitch near his face. Gotta learn to lay off the ones in your teeth.

Gathright popout. Three outs.

Bottom nine.

Royals manager Trey Hillman looks angry and scary. If as the KC manager he's this hosed at the beginning of the year, just wait until... well, anyway.

Leo Nunez pitching for the Royals. Striking out Renteria.

Polanco... lining out to a diving Grudzielanek. I wish Grudzy would stop doing so much this game because his name is very hard to spell.

Sheffield at bat. Full count already. The pitch...
Ball four. Gary Sheffield has walked four times this game.

But why? Magglio Ordonez bats behind him. Would you rather face the Big Tilde?? (As he harmlessly pops out to the first baseman. I won't talk anymore.)

Top ten.

Trey Hillman, it's worth noting, managed in Japan from 2003 to 2007. He was a Nippon-Ham Fighter. I only wish I could play for a team called the Ham Fighters. Fighters of Nippon-Ham, I suppose. But still...

Denny Bautista taking Todd Jones' place. I understand.

Mark Grudzielanek at bat. Grudzielanek at first. Single to left.

Now's Alex Gorden. Remember he homered earlier. He could totally do it again.

They snuck in a pinch runner. No longer will I have to spell out Grudzielanek. Now running, Esteban German. Esteban and German rhyme.

You know what else rhymes? Esteban German stealing a BASE, right out from under your FACE.

Go-ahead run on second, one out (Alex Gordon was useless), Jose Guillen at bat.
Score tied.
Extra innings.

Guillen struck right out. Two down.

Billy Butler hit the ball pretty hard, but lined it to the left fielder (Clete Thomas?), who made some sort of sissy jump to catch the ball.

Bottom ten.

Extra innings on opening day. How exciting.

Leo Nunez, who's a flailer, is still on the mound for KC. Miguel Cabrera at bat. But not anymore. One out.

Carlos Guillen, popout to center. It was deep enough for people to think, at least for a split second, that the game was over. Two down.

The Tigers have played in the longest opening day game against the Indians (Afflac duck!) when they went 15 innings in 1960. Detroit won, 4-2.

Nunez has a hot fastball. 97 mph. Striking Pudge out.

Top eleven.

Royals have a couple guys warming up in their bullpen. I don't know if Nunez can deal three innings or not. Regardless, Bautista is still pitching for Detroit. They haven't shown the Tiger bullpen yet. If it's empty it might soon see some action as Teahen just walked.

Gload, sac bunt. Teahen to second. One out.

Trey Hillman looking angry.

John Buck single to center... Teahen rounding third? No. NOO. Pegged at home. Good throw by Inge. Trey Hillman is angry because he can see the immediate future.

Buck's at second if that's any consolation.

Pena, Jr., swinging for the fences. Missing, of course.
No home run, but he does golf a pitch to shallow center. It falls for a hit, Buck scores from second, and the Royals take an extra-inning lead.

Tigers 4
Royals 5

Two down, and they're really paranoid about Jr. at first. Pickoffs, pitchouts... he's in somebody's head.

My back hurts.

Passed ball. Pena to second. How weird. All this time they thought he'd run, but he advances on a passed ball. Irony.

Gathright walks anyway, so now there's a man on first and second with two down. Esteban at bat. Esteban swinging and missing. Esteban striking out.

Bottom eleven.

Joakim Soria will try and hold Detroit to zero runs this inning. But he's got Clete Thomas to deal with. CLETE!

CLETE!! with a double.

Brandon Inge is trying out the whole bunting thing and bounced the ball right back into himself. Try again. He does. Successfully. One out, man on third.

It's a wonder that Inge isn't a man of excess. In the boxes he's labelled as B.Inge.

(pause for laughter)

Renteria is taking cuts like he's trying to win a ballgame. A deep fly ball will tie the game back up. A deeper one will win it.

A strikeout will get him nothing. And it is so.

Two down. Fathead Polanco up. Tying run 90 feet from home.

Sharp grounder to that weird area between third and short. Diving stop by Alex Gordon. Throw to first for the out. Game over. ROYALS WIN BASEBALL!

Nice stop by Gordon. Totally saved the game. And ended it.


And this ended up being the longest post ever.

Happy opening day!
Enjoy the rest of the season.

Opening Day, Take 3

Firstly I'd like to apologize for not updating in so so long. Road trips, alien abductions, etc. For now I'm back.

Secondly... oh, hey, the baseball season started. Like, for real.
I suppose the season really started when Boston and Oakland met a few days ago in Japan (choosing, I guess, to play in a stadium between the two cities, but on the OPPOSITE side of the globe). When those games aired live in the eastern time zone I was either at work or at sleep so I could only catch highlights. They re-aired those two games during more suitable hours, but I can't watch a pre-recorded baseball game unless it's at least a decade old. Anyway, everybody looked like they had a lot of fun (except for Jason Veritek... 0 for 8, six strikeouts) and I'm not so much of a fogey traditionalist that I wouldn't encourage more of the same in the future. Opening more seasons in Japan? Sure!

However, Japan is stuck in some weird continuum where space and time don't matter, and so the REAL opening day took place Sunday in DC. Although I wouldn't pick a Braves/Nationals matchup to ordain a new season I'll take what I can get. Unfortunately I was at work (I should really just quit) and only caught the last couple innings. But what an exciting last couple they were. A come-from-behind tying (via a passed ball... oops), and Atlanta hope squelched by a game-winning walk-off home run. Good stuff.

But of course making the Youtube rounds is video of the Washington crowd saying BOOOO-urns to the President. God bless a nation where its citizens can openly heckle the leader of it's country, and God bless a President who can throw a ball sixty feet without bouncing it.

(Not Youtube, but there's less of a chance of this getting yanked by the MLB deities.)

I couldn't get a good look at the Nationals' new stadium, but I didn't mind what I saw. Centerfield is a bit pointy (and a lot of batters will curse that extra few feet) and the light fixtures are huge (a lot of fielders will curse instant blindness). Maybe during some DC trip in the future I'll be able to catch a game.

A game I'll catch for sure is this Friday's Blue Jay home opener against the Red Sox. Our seats are way up in the mesosphere (possibly atop the CN Tower), but it'll still be an enjoyable experience.

Baseball-wide opening day games will be starting soon (like, in minutes). I'll be splitting television time between the KC/Detroit game and the NY/Toronto game. If I'm up to it I'll liveblog whatever my viewing habits permit me to watch, but you should be in front of the TV yourself.

My schedule may have just filled up for the next seven months.

Fantasy Ball Roundup

I know maybe five people read this, most of whom are related to me, but it's fantasy baseball time over on Yahoo! and if you're interested in joining a league then let me know. If enough people want to play then we'll engage ourselves in some competitive statistics-comparing throughout the season, and if I'm winning I'll probably gloat about it here. If NOT enough people want to play... then I'll go hang out in the public leagues like I do every year. ALONE.

I don't think I have anything to offer as far as prizes are concerned. I don't know. Maybe I could find something. No Mantle rookie cards or anything like that.

Leave a "yes let's do this" comment in the, uh, comments area so as to provoke the shy lurkers to do the same. Remember, the more the substantial increase in site hits merrier.

Juan Gonzalez: Okay?

I'm interested to see how this Juan Gonzalez thing is going to work out.

The Cardinals generously decided to give Gonzalez another chance and signed him to a Minor League contract last month. In past years Gonzalez has attempted several "comebacks" with other teams, but injuries have prevented him from doing anything productive. His last Big League appearance came in 2005 -- one at-bat for Cleveland (he grounded out to third and effed up his hammy) -- and he's been hanging out in the Atlantic League and Puerto Rican League since then. Even those seasons were cut short due to injury. If you're a betting man, the odds of Gonzalez getting hurt and only playing a handful of games (be it at a major or minor league level) are somewhere around 1-to-1.

It's interesting that the Cardinals, a NL team, signed him. Due to his fragility it would seem best to make him strictly a DHer. Less opportunity to strain things. And, in fact, during these spring training games the Cards have used him in the DH spot. But since he's vying for an outfield role with the team he needs to, y'know, play outfield. And so it shall be done, as LaRussa has decided to no longer utilize the DH at all during pre-season games. I suppose if Gonzalez misses the final cut, yet still does respectfully enough in the minors, he could get called up for interleague games. But I don't know if the Birds will ever be that desperate. Anyway, we'll see if he can shag pop flies without tearing up vital leg muscles.

He is, by the way, doing alright at the plate so far. In 22 Spring Training at bats he's had six hits, five RBIs, a double and a homer. I'm a little concerned that he's only walked once, but these are exhibition games and none of this really matters anyway.

Despite his propensity for injuries, and despite being a chronic whiner, I hope he does well. Juan Gonzalez used to be the best, and I don't really like seeing people fall from glory (unless they really REALLY deserve it, but I usually reserve that judgement for tyrannical political despots). But more than that the Cardinals need their line-up filled in a bit more. Albert Pujols, Troy Glaus, and Chris Duncan (and even Rick Ankiel) can swing a heavy bat, but offensively the team is still thin. Obviously Gonzalez isn't going to hit 40 homers like he routinely used to, but any little offensive pop in the roster would be greatly appreciated.