Got there at 12:30. Gates were open, there were lots of people but they were all hanging around the out-of-stadium events, like at Pickles and Sliders and such. Not a lot of people were going in that early. The Budweiser Clydesdales were outside of the stadium. They were pretty cool.
It was overcast and cool. Later on, in the 3rd, the Sun came out and it actually got hot. I talked to a guy who is a big Tampa Bay fan. He said he thinks we paid too much for Alex Cobb, but if he actually comes all the way back from Tommy John that we should have found the true No. 1 we’ve been looking for.
Best tee shirts I saw: One read “Where’s Ubaldo”, and one said “I want to party like it’s 1983”
Attman’s at the stadium was completely unprepared for Opening Day. They got my order wrong twice, and I gave up and just ate the wrong sandwich. The guy next to me, they got his order wrong 3 times. The Pastrami was good.
I walked out of the stadium after the game and walked down Conway Street, and found myself walking next to Dan Duquette (in a nice black suit) holding hands with a small child.
The O’s seems to be pretty patient at the plate. I kept looking at Oderizzi’s pitch count, and it was high at the end of every inning. And we weren’t fouling off tons of pitches. We just weren’t swinging at pitches out of the zone. Bundy looked as good as his numbers, but I kept looking at the speed gun, and nothing was particularly fast. A bunch were slow. 82 mph sliders, 89 mph fastballs, that sort of thing.
In the 9th Chris Davis CLEARLY lost the ball in the Sun when that short liner clanked off his glove. I looked at the Sun right after the play, and the Sun was perfectly placed to get in his eyes.
I talked to an Usher about tickets. He said the O’s always hold back tickets for Ushers and such to buy for family and friends, and then release them for sale right before the game. He said he himself bought 4 tickets for his Son and his Son’s family.
I bought an Opening Day pin. They had sold out of them the last two years. This year they had plenty. But they are usually $8. This year they were $15. Lots of items really have been reduced in price at the stores. This particular item was nearly doubled in price.
Bundy made a really good play getting to 1st in the 2nd? 3rd? when the grounder went off of Davis’ glove, and Schoop backing him up fielded it and got the ball to Bundy. Everyone was cheering, because we all thought it was a single.
Gentry made that catch in the 2nd that was clearly over the wall for a homer, and made a good running play in the first. He was playing well over toward Center and it was a long run to catch that fly ball near the line.
Good to see Pollock Johnny’s having 2 booths back at the stadium. I asked the woman working the booth and she said they had been very very busy.
Beckham made a good play on a grounder that got past Bleier in the 10th, coming in hard and throwing out the runner. The ball that got past him earlier in the game simply should have been fielded by a good 3rd baseman. That ground ball up the middle that Mychal Gyvens fielded was a monster defensive play (although, I think if it had gotten past him it would have been fielded by Manny). Maybe the best fielded ball by a Pitcher I’ve ever seen. Super fast reflexes.
