Opening Day

           

Pregame Ceremony

 Joe DiMaggio once said, “You always get a special kick on opening day, no matter how many you go through.  You look forward to it like a birthday party when you’re a kid.  You think something wonderful is going to happen.”  And boy did it ever.  I went to my first Opening Day game this year, in Atlanta.  Opening Day has such great lore about it.  There is a sense of renewal, starting over with a clean slate.  The Braves did great last year, but after that wildcard play-in game it was nice to finally start a new year.  Braves legends Dale Murphy served as honorary team captain and presented the opening lineup, Chipper Jones threw out the first pitch and Phil Niekro declared, “Play ball!” before the game started.  Oh, and they gave us foam tomahawks at the gate.  It was a great day and the game hadn’t even started yet. 

            

The 2013 Atlanta Braves



 The Braves beat the Phillies 7-5.  It was a really good game.  Freddie Freeman, Dan Uggla and Justin Upton hit homeruns, all off of Cole Hamels.  Cole Hamels is not my favorite because of his attempt at being “old school” and beaming Bryce Harper last year, so those homeruns were especially fun to watch.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the romanticism of the unwritten rules and all, but you can’t just beam a guy because he’s good and call it “old school”.  There were a couple of times that the Phillies got a little too close for comfort, but the guys got the job done.  Tim Hudson did not have an ideal start, only going 4 1/3 innings and allowing three runs.  This is not typical Huddy and I know he will get better.  The crowd was great and stayed in it the whole game.  It was such a fun game overall. 

            I learned a couple of things from Opening Day.  Number one, if you want to get a prepaid parking pass (which I like to do) for an event like Opening Day, you need to get it really early.  I attempted to buy one about three weeks out and they were sold out.  We rode MARTA to the game.  It was really easy and a great alternative, just not my first choice.  Number two, if the somewhat loud guy behind you finds out the girl sitting in front of him knows more about baseball than he does he tends to not be quite as loud.  The families behind me were discussing Tim Hudson and his time with the A’s.  They were talking about the other guys he pitch with there and could not come up with Barry Zito, so I helped them.  The guy then said to me, “Do you mind me asking how you know that?”  I’m pretty sure he was only asking because I am a girl, so I did mind; not that I told him.  Whatever. 

The only thing that would have made the day even better, if I could have seen the Dodger game too.  Clayton Kershaw pitched a complete game shutout and hit a homerun?!?!  Wow!