Opening Day Jitters

That's what I'm calling last night's loss, anyway. Just jitters. New ballpark, sold-out game, pressure to beat the usually sucky Nats. Those of you who have been reading for the last six months know I'm not one to do in-depth play-by-play analysis here; I save that pleasure for my friends who watch the games with me. (ha) If you want stats? There are plenty of blogs out there that will analyze the numbers to death. I prefer to focus on the fun side of baseball, but here are a few interesting numbers:

1: Chipper Jones hit the first home run in Nationals Park history in the fourth inning.

19: set down in a row by Tim Hudson after his relatively shaky first inning.

2: miles per hour Brian McCann ran, trying to leg out his double in the top of the second. I know he's never been fast, but dude.

6.75: Pete Moylan's ERA after last night's game. I'm not too worried yet -- he's usually lights-out, we have 161 games left, and if Bobby uses him like he did last year, Pete will have approximately 79 more chances to prove his stuff. No biggie, man.


Other comments I made to my friends during the course of the evening...

1. Regardless of personal feelings towards George W. Bush, I think it was extremely rude to boo the President as he came out to throw the first pitch. So disrespectful. Would they boo the Pope? The queen of England? No, of course not. Internet culture has gotten us far away from "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

2. I do not like the new navy road unis. The tomahawk looks purple, not red; I would have preferred the powder blues to make a comeback.

3. "This is the Chipper Jones discussion show on ESPN!"... with occasional game-calling and discussion of Derek Jeter and the Yankees and Mets. My friend Not!Baby (he looks more like Brian McCann than Mac's own brother does) asked me if I'd been keeping count of all the times the Yankees were mentioned in the broadcast. As of 7:45, he'd counted either six or seven mentions of the Yankees. *heavy sigh*

4. Kots is making me miss Andruw, and I didn't think I'd ever admit that. Druw's smiling face was always a pleasure to behold, especially if we were winning.

5. Former Brave Odalis Perez did pretty well. Also, it's PEREZ. NOT PARE-EZ. Someone at ESPN needs a couple of Spanish lessons. (At least we didn't have to hear too much about "On-Drew".)


Tonight's game: Tom Glavine goes up against Ian Snell of the Pittsburgh Pirates in Tommy's return as a Brave to Turner Field. I'll be there, and hopefully the stadium will be full of roars instead of boos. Go Braves!