Credits: Go Team Baseball by Blue Heart Scraps


Journaling:


The 2013 season has officially started the Houston Astros, who aren’t supposed to be any kind of contender this year, beat the perennial playoffs Rangers in the Opening Day Eve game on ESPN by a score of 8-2! I love it when the underdog wins unless the underdog is playing against one of my teams.


Actual Opening Day, April 1, was a mix of emotions. The official start to the season, the first pitch in Cincinnati, the home of the first professional team in baseball, started well with the Findlay Market parade and all of the new season buzz at the sold out Great American Ball Park, but it didn’t stay as wonderful as it started. Before the Reds fell to the Angels 3-1 in 13 long innings, Ryan Ludwick separated his shoulder. On opening day, we lose our cleanup hitter to a bad slide; awful!


But things were better on the American League side!


The Tigers took the wind out of the Twins Opening Day sails, winning 4-2 in Minnesota. Classic Opening Day weather in the north saw highs in the 30s and players in face masks and other cold weather gear. But truth; as much as I hate being cold, I’ve bundled for baseball before and watched the snow fall gently on the field at Tiger Stadium on Opening Day. Heck, I’ve watched snow stick to the field in Chicago in April. Somehow, it’s just not a real baseball season unless there is at least one 4-bottles-of-water-game because it’s so hot and at least one hot-chocolate-game, with a winter jacket, gloves and a blanket. I’ve been to a Reds game where player’s cleats were melting in the over 100-degree field temperature in old Riverfront Stadium while I was drugged up and sucking on an abseil cotton ball because I had an abscess tooth but Tom Glavine was pitching for the Braves. The dentist wasn’t open until Monday anyway. I was also drinking hot cocoa and cuddling under my Tigers blanket with the man I eventually shared a last name with on our first date at Comerica Park in Detroit.


Unlike Opening Day this year, David and I shared a blanket but not a cheering side for that first date game. One of the most romantic things he’s done, still does, is the ticket form that game remains magneted to the refrigerator even though my Tigers beat his Red Sox. It was the only time that happened in 2005. (I feel honored, he feels gypped!)


But this year on the official baseball holiday, we were both happy to see the Red Sox embarrass the dreaded Yankees in their own home opener, 8-2!


I watched all three games on TV, toggling between ESPN, Fox Sports Detroit and Fox Sports Ohio, still tuned in to the bitter extra innings end of the Cincinnati loss as David came in after work. It wasn’t a perfect Opening Day, but even a bad Opening Day is still one of my favorite holidays of the Year!