Opening Day Notes

Thoughts on Opening Day, including more Mets stuff!

• Jay Payton, who walked twice and hit a solo shot off Ron Villone yesterday, was quoted as saying "To me, the two walks are as good as a home run." This, from the guy who has 49 walks in his career, is a good sign. Maybe he's starting to Get It. OBP Is Life.
• The new Mets said all the right things after the game yesterday. Most of them talked about how great it was to have the crowd behind them. Let's hope they can shake it off if and when the boos come (as they inevitably do at some point in one's NY sports career). I'm sure Mo can handle it, coming from Boston, but it'll be interesting to see Alomar's and Burnitz' reaction. Or maybe they'll both play so well that the boos won't come; time will tell.
• My dad messaged me yesterday and said "Clemens got hit." "Yeah," I replied, "he got ROCKED." Then I watched SportsCenter last night; he really did get hit. One of those pitcher instincts that always makes me wince is throwing a bare hand after a ball hit up the middle, and Clemens got bitten by it yesterday. Thank God I drafted the other Yankees ace, Mussina.
• Pedro was another ace who got his ass kicked yesterday. I saw him at the press conference afterwards, and he insisted he's feeling fine. If he keeps this up, though, it'll be obvious that he's not All Right, and he'll be shut down yet again. So will any sliver of a chance the Red Sox might have had.
• Mark Mulder had a great outing for Oakland yesterday, throwing eight innings in only 95 pitches. Combine that with the five homeruns hit by the Twins and my two AL teams are off to a great start!
• Randy Johnson. Randy Johnson, Randy Johnson, Randy Johnson. He was quoted on SportsCenter last night as saying "I don't think I've had my best season yet." No matter what the Diamondbacks do, they'll be essentially unbeatable every fifth day.
• From the "forever bitter" files, I'd like to point out Mike Hampton's line from yesterday: 3 2/3 innings, 9 hits, 6 runs (all earned), three walks and a K. Coloroado, this is your $121 million pitcher.
• And finally, congratulations Terps and Terps fans everywhere. It's not baseball, but it happened on Opening Day; sue me.

April 02, 2002 - 08:47 AM

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