First Opening Day!
Luke attended his second baseball game today (for some reason, people always seem surprised that he attended his first at just one month old — as if I’d allow my son to have missed the night Jay Buhner was inducted into the M’s Hall of Fame). But it was his first opener, so that’s a big deal. He cried when Richie Sexson hit his second homer of the game; got a bit too loud there for a minute. Other than that he had a great time, and certainly got more out of it than his first game, when he mostly just slept. We employed a “sit for one inning, walk around for one inning” plan that kept him pretty happy. There’s a picture of us after the “more” link.
Yeah, my beard’s getting a bit out of control — but I don’t have to shave until school starts in a month, so dammit, I’m not shaving.
This was probably my 10th or so Opening Day game, and I can’t remember one at which I paid less attention to the actual game… I’d be hard-pressed to give you any impressions of how Moyer threw, Valdez’ defense or much else, for that matter. I also can’t remember an opener at which I had more fun. What a great day to be a dad.
Comments
46 Responses to “First Opening Day!”
SHOOT! THAT’S THE SECTION I SAT IN!, Right where I sat! My little sister is the head peeking out the side of JMB’s arm.
Kid’s got a spiffy shirt.
Why are you wearing a Brewers hat? Or, if you’re not, why are you wearing something that is very close to being a Brewers hat?
That’s a riot! Too bad we hadn’t met before…
Nah, it’s an M’s cap. Not an official one or anything. M on the front, and the trident “S” logo small on the back. Wool makes my head itch something wicked, and this is the only hat I’ve ever found that’s 70% acrylic, 30% wool. I bought it at Nike Town probably five years ago. OK, too much info.
jason
Also, Those wishing to meet me tomorrow can find me at the left field gate before the game. I’ll be in a blue ski coat with my season pass on it, with my name on the pass, obviously. Authentic M’s hat on head.
That’s the most I’ve ever read about a hat.
I knew it was too much info.
jason
Section 144 row 18, also.
Jeff Cirillo hit a HR and a double today as the Brew Crew’s opening 3B. Wow.
I will be in Seattle wednesday and thursday to speak at an Ecological Restoration conference… I point that out only to say that I am blowing much of it off to go to the Ms afternoon game !! Woohooo! (Game 3 of 162 v. helping to restore the planet.. No brainer!)
I also took my son when he was only a couple months old. Can’t remember who hit the dinger, but when those fireworks in the KingDome went off he wailed something fierce!
Congrats DJC your the first person to mention Cirilos homer today
While this is rather “gossipy” news, I post it here because it really made me upset to hear this news about Sasaki, and I thought other M’s fans had a right to know. Turns out, he didn’t just leaving the M’s for “family reasons”.
Some of you guys might find this interesting, but our ex-closer Sasaki has been less than truthful with us. For those who can read Japanese…
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20050405-00000021-nks-spo
The gist is, Sasaki actually broke off his deal with Seattle NOT to go home to his family, but to go home to a woman with whom he was having an affair. She is pregnant with his child (happened while he was STILL married to his ex-wife), and they are scheduled to be married in the next few weeks. He is currently residing in her apartment. For those who want to see Enomoto Kanako, the woman who cost us our closer, here she is:
http://tinyurl.com/3s934
Ach, when I read this, it made me wonder, what was the Samsonite excuse then? What was the REAL reason he bailed on us when he claimed “injury”?
You probably won’t be happy to hear, Jeff, that this doesn’t really come as a surprise (at least to me). Even at the time, the luggage excused was widely believed to be a cover up for some sort of domestic disturbance (most common story was that his wife pushed him down the stairs when learning of the affair).
jason
On a less serious note about Sasaki, I miss the San Shin headbands.
@#12 True true. I’d just heard so many varying stories though about the injury that I was holding out hope that maybe it truly was just a cultural clash with his wife and son wanting to stay in Japan (instead of a messy affair). One can hope… although in vain in this case…
….and I heard a KJR jock say that Kazu really wanted to return to Japan in order to regain the career lead in saves for Japan.
JMB, didn’t Robert Whiting in his book (and resulting book tour) on Ichiro say that the scuttlebutt among the Japanese media following the M’s was that Kazu was injured doing WWE type hijinks with his buddies following a night on the town?
The domestic disturbance angle sounds too much like rumors of Hillary Rodham throwing stuff at her Bill.
I enjoyed Kazu’s first two years but he definitely abused his position as a Japanese national on a Japanese owned club. Recall he flew home during the middle of 2002 to see his wife for some unstated reason and ended up signing a midseason contract extension when he returned thus violating some unwritten team “policy” for negotiating during the season.
And the whole cover story being floated for the suitcase injury with straight faces by club officials and reported as such by most media members. None of the other players (esp. Arthur Rhodes) bought it. It was weaker than Jeff Kent’s motorbike coverup. I doubt Garcia and Guillen (or Jeff Nelson) would have been cut the same slack for such a bogus off the field injury.
(btw, Mrs. Sasaki II doesn’t look half bad).
well she appears worth it :-*
Mrs. Sasaki II doesn’t look half bad
Understatement is key.
(err, replying to the above replies, not to the Sasaki stuff)
JMB: That’s an awesome baby picture. The expression on his face is absolutely perfect. (It almost looks like the kind of picture you’d see in a M’s “you gotta love these fans” handout)
Poor DJC. Obviously you need a “USSM Super-Poster” cap or something.
(I won’t be at tomorrow’s game, but I’ll be at Wednesday’s, and most of this weekend’s games. I wish I could be there tomorrow though. Meche vs. Santana should be interesting to watch.)
Hey David J Corcoran,
Did you pick up a copy of The Grand Salami on Monday? If you didn’t, I would be happy to sell you one on Tuesday. I sell them before games, it’s not like I read mine and am pawning it off on you. See ya in left field…
While I regret the iimpact upon the former Ms. Sasaki, and the kid especially, I find it heartening that love (or its near equivalent) was worth more than money for someone other than me in this world. What was the final year on Kazu’s contract worth, $8M? That’s a bunch a mighty yen to give up that much dough. Asking her to come here and be with him in the middle of a baddd divorce wasn’t going to play too well, it’s easy to see, so he ditched the contract to get the girl.
I miss Kazu, but I didn’t regret his disappearance: his fastball looked to be fading, and there was the real possibility of complete performance collapse if he’d stayed with the team through ’04. An interesting tale, Jeff K.
That might be true except that Sasaki signed a deal in Japan that was worth about 75% as much money to him: he made 650 million yen in 2004, which is about 6 million dollars worth.
And that doesn’t include possible additional money he might make over there doing commercials — he wasn’t making a ton of money hawking car dealerships here — and so on and so forth.
So whatever happened, it wasn’t some grand gesture.
(btw, Mrs. Sasaki II doesn’t look half bad).
shared an elevator yesterday (opener) with Joel’s wife. Wow. Seriously. Wow.
Crap. Now we’re really going to get a lot of hits from people googling “Joel Pineiro’s wife”. Seriously, folks, that’s creepy.
Could be creepier (creepier?). A few months ago, I was getting a few hits from “Bobby Abreu’s house” search queries.
Re: #10
Actually, no he wasn’t. It was mentioned in the comments on the running game log thread. 🙂
Jimmie
Actually, it was in the “Opening Day” thread, nearly 2 hours before the game log thread was opened. matt beat me to it by two minutes.
I sat behind her, her mom, and Joel’s kids during spring training. I’ll second the wow!
Big Sexy’s homers were beautiful to see. As much as I hate to admit it, it’d be pretty easy to forget Bucky if Sexson keeps that up.
And I’ll be the first to say it, Sexson’s on pace to hit 324 homers this year! Unfortunately, that’ll be 162 homers behind the current pace.
Given that Bucky was at no point in competition with Richie Sexson, that statement doesn’t make much sense. Now if Raul Ibanez puts up a .900 OPS against lefties, then it’ll be easy to forget about Bucky.
Is there a way to program the site to automatically reject any post that includes the words Big Sexy?
Of course if you did it would reject this post.
I kind of like the Big Sexy nickname. He sounds like a professional wrestler. When do we get to call Spiezio “Scottie 2 Hottie”?
Opening Day Hypothetical Poll… prior to Opening Day, of these 3 outcomes which would you have preferred?
1-Beltre & Sexson each get a HR
2-Beltre gets 2 HR’s
3-Sexson gets 2 HR’s
I would have chosen #3. Not so much because Sexson had a tough Spring Training, for all that’s worth, but because Sexson’s game is mostly power and he will now always come up to the plate at Safeco Field feeling confident that he can jack one out. No grumblings about the unfairness of the park to right handed hitters. No grumblings about the hitter’s eye. Just a Rafael Palmeiro kind of confidence that this park won’t defeat him. I contend that if in September his Safeco HR total still stands at 2, he’ll still come up to the plate brimming with confidence.
I think Beltre’s game is more well rounded, he knows that, and he also knows that he doesn’t need a super great Opening Day to have confidence about his hitting in Safeco Field. Especially considering his past in another pitcher’s park.. Dodger Stadium.
Doubles, man, lots of doubles. That’s what I want from Beltre, doubles. Just like the old days when Edgar and Tino and Junior were jacking doubles all over the ‘Dome. Doubles that’ll score Ichiro, and Reed from first. Oh yeah.
As I’m sure Evan knows, “Big Sexy” was Kevin Nash’s nickname in WCW. If he sues the M’s to stop them from using it to refer to Richie, that would be fine with me.
You probably had to be there to get this, but how about a new nickname for our favorite new DH Raul Ibañez:
“Yul”
Laughed for about 5 minutes after that mid-innings video…
If Sexson’s September HR total is 2, it will be because he’s still recuperating from a shoulder operation.
Uh, the Japanese tabloid press is notorious for basically making crap up. I remember from Ya Gotta Have Wa an anecdote about a Japanese baseball player waiting at a crosswalk who had a porn star move next to him, then suddenly grabbed his arm as a photographer snapped a picture. Boom, a tabloid has a picture of him “on a date with a notorious porn star”.
So I’d be really careful sourcing Japanese scandal sheets…
Jason … man, you’re going to be missed. Please dedicate your career to devising a dessert dish known as “Jeter Jubilee.”
Ahh, Kevin Nash. How the mighty have fallen, having been reduced to playing mindless thugs in bad comic book movies:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0330793/
I do really like the name for Sexson. I hope it catches on in Seattle.
Evan, the most hilarious thing Nash ever did was produce an actual comic book starring (who else) himself. That’s about a .05 percent on the scale of hilariousness generated by his former partner Scott Hall, but still registers.
Wow, you mean to tell me that Sports and B’s isn’t the only Mariner blog that’s mentioning wrestling this week?
PositivePaul: The Raul/Yul comparison pictures were really disturbing.
I liked Jackie Chan as Shiggy, and Jim Belushi as Hargrove. The rest of the team as either Tom Hanks or Wesley Snipes, well, that might be a problem.
But Brad Pitt as Ichiro ranked slightly above the “Dude!” line in the new commercials for me. That was priceless!
Did anybody notice that the only time home plate umpire Bruce Froemming “swept” the plate, he did it with his foot?
Hey, after yesterday’s win, I have the Mariner’s on track to win 112 games this year. Anaheim and Texas haven’t played, but things look grim for Oakland: 0-162, assuming nothing gets rained out.
Jeff, Evan, and anybody who’s into wrestling
OT: Here’s my post about Wrestlemania in L.A. over the weekend. I was ringside. USSM crew, I know this may sound like a plug, so if y’all need to remove this, do as you wish.
http://bremertonians.blogspot.com/2005/04/wrestlemania-weekend-in-la.html