Scenes from the Opener

My friend and intrepid journalist PK was at yesterday's Phillies-National season opener and offers this report:

It's hard to overstate how much the McNabb trade permeated the environment at the Phillies-Nats game today. Everyone -- and I mean everyone -- was talking about it. Inside the men's room, in the beer lines, walking to/from the game. 

"Hey, Giants suck," some Phillies fan chirped to my buddy as we walked into the stadium, him wearing an NYG t-shirt.

"Get a quarterback, you losers," his brother Jack shouted back at the Phils' fans.

They had no rebuttal.

All that being said, I've never been to a game like that where the road team's fans sooooo utterly dominated the volume throughout the game. It was a little ugly at times (our fans were yelling "sucks" after each National was announced at the start of the game, including guys who were assistant bench coaches and didn't even wear a uniform).

All in all, I'm now at peace with what the Eags did. It was the dumbest thing any team I've cheered for has done, sure. But I'm moving on.

Today, guys, we put on the field the greatest Opening Day roster in the history of the Philadelphia Phillies. A lot can still go wrong, and a lot might go wrong. 

But if we stay reasonably healthy, we're easily the best team in the National League. Easily. I personally suspect that we'll fall victim to a bunch of injuries this year, as we've been really lucky avoiding major injuries.

But on paper, wow, this is like the '77 Phillies, except with all the experience possible.

Wow.

Amazing crowd. Given the fear of Obama and Secret Service, I'd guess 30,000 folks were in the park before noon, which was a good thing, because if you waited till normal times to try to get in, you were screwed. SS closed down S. Capitol to move POTUS, so it was a nightmare on the streets outside. 

But I got into the park before noon. Between the national anthem and the First Pitch, there was an odd 10-min delay. They filled the time by honoring Zimmerman's Golden Glove and Adam Dunn's Silver Slugger award. 

It made me worried that there was some sorta Obama delay -- was he taking a crap, was he not warmed up and fearful of throwing a bad pitch, were the Lerners soooo stupid and ignorant that they delayed the president's pitch 10 mins so they could honor the only 2 players worth their weight from last year's terrible team?

As presidential pitches go, it was a strike. He pitched from the rubber, he got the ball to the plate, it didn't hit the dirt. Strike one.

The really big thing about our game yesterday was the top of the lineup. JRoll looked great. Line drives. That's the key to his game, not pulling off trying to hit homers and ending up with weak flies to the outfifeld. Polanco made GM Ruben look like a genius.

The 3-7 All Stars looked like All Stars. (Does anyone else in baseball have 5 consecutive All Stars in the heart of their lineup?)

The thing to know about great pitchers is, the 2nd time through the lineup, they get stronger. They've noticed a hitter's tendencies, and they take advantage. Doc looked great from the 3rd inning on.

The thing to know about bad pitchers is, they get rocked the 2nd time through the lineup.

Hence: The Phillies 5-run 3rd inning.

My guess is, Lanan probably through Howard the same exact first pitch he started him on in the 1st inning. So he just ripped it outta the park.

Our defense looked great. We turned double plays. Howard dug balls outta the dirt. 

There's simply no weakness anywhere in that lineup now.

With Polanco at 2, Werth hitting 5 and switch hitting Victorino hitting 7, they now have the solution to the overloaded lefty situation in the lineup.

Setting aside obvious pitching concerns -- is Cole back, the closer situation, Blanton's oblique -- there should only be 2 worries: Polanco's glove and Raul's bat.

Raul is old, and he might start falling off. We accepted the 2nd half fall off last year as an injury thing. Truth is, that's what he's done his entire career, been incredibly hot and then incredibly cold.

Now, he's a year older. We'll see.