For starters, my husband and I had a great time at Nationals Park on Opening Day, with beautiful weather, a great atmosphere, and a flyover (I won't mention the $9 beer, because that's not a positive thing to point out). I may not be the most patriotic person in this country, but flyovers are always cool, especially when there's an enormous American flag taking up the entire outfield and there are several dozen sailors in uniform making the giant flag undulate. Pretty majestic way to kick off the baseball season (this is where I'm not going to mention the fat guy with the bad cologne who sat next to me and didn't know a thing about baseball and had to have the lady sitting on the other side of him explain everything). It was also exciting to go into the sixth inning without Nationals' starter, Max Scherzer, giving up a hit - I got all nervous thinking I was going to witness a no-hitter in person! While the no-hitter was broken up in the same inning, it was still fun to think that I still have many more ball games to go to in my life, and someday I might even witness a no-hitter.
As for the other teams in the league, the Kansas City Royals are starting off on a tear at 7-0, and the Detroit Tigers are kicking butt despite placing ace pitcher Justiin Verlander on the Disabled List. The Atlanta Braves traded away their closer, Craig Kimbrell, to San Diego, but are still atop the NL East with Jason Grilli as their new closer. And how about that Billy Hamilton, who already has 7 stolen bases for the Cincinnati Reds? As far as home runs, the Dodgers' Adrián González is leading the Majors with 5, followed by former Oriole Nelson Cruz with 4 for the Seattle Mariners.
Hmmm... what other nice things can I say? Well, there's the return of Mets hottie Matt Harvey, who missed the 2014 season after having Tommy John surgery. He's back in pre-surgery form, as is the Yankees' Masahiro Tanaka. Both of these pitchers will be closely monitored and have innings limits, as will the Marlins' José Fernández when he returns to the mound in a few weeks. Also back after surgery is Jayson Werth, who is moving from right field to left because he's just getting too old to handle that side of the outfield. No, that's not me being mean - just stating the obvious.
So there you have it - my analysis of the first week of the baseball season without any snarky comments or sarcasms. I held off on saying I could drive a car through the gap in Commissioner Manfred's front teeth; I neglected predicting that Andrew McCutchen is going to suck this year because he had his dreadlocks cut off; and I certainly didn't mention how awful the new Jumbo-Tron looks in Wrigley Field. See? I can be nice! But I can't promise I'll stay this way - there is still a long season ahead of us, I have at least 4 more games to attend, and I haven't even mentioned Alex Rodrguez. Stay tuned, my friends! :-)
