Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 06, 2004
Opening Day Impressions

You can read all the opening day impressions here.

Brandon writes about his first opening day game.


Welcome to the Jungle......

This was my first ever opening day, I have been a Dodger fan since 1988, but haven’t really taken true interest in the team until maybe 5-6 years ago. I had found out I had received tickets for the game on April 1st, so I was a bit concerned it was to be a big joke. I would have drawn blood if this were the case.

The day started out with a morning mist, but was expected to burn off by game time. Entering the stadium parking lot, my mother and I made our way to the stadium. It is by far the most beautiful stadium I have seen in my brief 22 years of life, every off season, Dodger Stadium is repainted and made to look brand new every season, she's forty years old and still grand. Set in Chavez Ravine, facing northeast, palm trees lining the outfield pavilions, Sierra Madre mountains in the background.

As we got to the gate, we spotted a sale for merchandise, and it was while standing in line that dookie (Lo Duca), shoe (Shuey), and mart (Martin) drove by in a golf cart to the applause of the crowd. I bought a great looking warm up jacket and we made our way into the stadium. Our seats were excellent, right above the press box perfectly lined up with home plate and the mound, almost directly a straight line from home to the mound to 2nd.

I was of course very excited. The Navy Seals were dropped from a USCG C-130 and dropped into center field, game ball, US flag and all. They were going through introducing past dodger greats. Maury Wills, Tommy Davis, the entire infield of the 70's was present, Ron Cey, Bill Russell, Davey Lopes (padres 1st base coach), and Steve Garvey, the great Tommie Lasorda. Then the ceremony turned to a celebration of the great Dodger Cy Young pitchers. The great Don Newcombe was introduced, first recipient of the CY award, Don Drysdale's son was present due to his passing, Mike Marshall, and Fernando Valenzuela were all introduced. Sandy Koufax was unable to attend since he goes to the Final Four games, but a taped message was shown on the video board, also, Orel Hershiser gave a taped message being the pitching coach for the Rangers. By far the largest applauds were for Fernando and Lasorda as both were given a standing ovation for a full minute. Then the Dodgers bullpen received the Rolaids Relief award and Gagne received his Cy Young award, presented to him by Don Newcombe.

The national anthem was sung with an over flight of F-18 fighters, balloons creating a flag were released in centerfield, and white doves were released.

First pitch was made by Newcombe, Drysdale's son, Marshall, and Valenzuela, it was great to see them

It was interesting to see the Padres in their sand colored uniforms, it was different, but not recommended for other teams.

Izturis got things going with a hit to left, and was followed by a single by Bradley to center

Nomo was bit shaky through the 1st 4 innings, he never got his fastball above 88mph, and seemed to nibble his way through the innings. He had a bad pitch that Lawrence, his opposite, stroked down the 3rd baseline for a double and I was a bit worried about this, the pitcher got a very good hit off that very badly hanging curve or something like a curve.

It all fell apart in the 5th :(
Nomo finally fell apart, he gave up another hit to Lawrence and finally got himself in a jam by walking Giles to bring up nevin, who promptly deposited a bad fastball into the left field corner for a grand slam

My glorious day stopped, along with my heart.

Nomo walked klesko who was pinch run for, and promptly gave up another HR to almost exactly the same spot to the CF.

Nomo did not come out for the 6th. I was very impressed by Duaner Sanchez, he had great velocity (93-95mph) and he swept through the side. Greenie did seem to be trying to over swing almost every time he had men on base. His one good swing reached about 390-400 to the right field pavilion.

Another impressive thing I noticed, was that the Dodgers were not swinging at every first pitch they saw, Lawrence had 50 pitches through 2 innings and only lasted 5, they were going deep into counts and battling. It was a welcome change from last year.

The crowd booed at the end of the 5th, and every inning the bases were left loaded, it was very disappointing, but they were getting on base, that was impressive. Most of the crowd left at the end of the 8th inning when they left the bases loaded and Beltre grounded out. Being down 8-2, all hope had seemed to be lost with the crowd.

It was great to see Dreifort pitch with all that he has been through, and he pitched a solid 9th.

I was impressed with Bradley adjusting quickly to NL pitching and Encarnacion also had a solid debut. Greenie looked decent at 1st, he'll get better as the season moves along. I pray for Nomo to come back and adjust, or it will be a long season

Those are my thoughts, I thoroughly enjoyed my first opening day, even if the day was a loss, there were silver linings, and maybe the season won't be as long as I had feared. It will certainly have its moments.


I agree. The Dodgers had a good, but not timely offense tomorrow. If they play most games like that, they'll score a lot of runs.


Posted by David Pinto at 09:09 AM | Opening Day Impressions | TrackBack (0)