Great day to honor Bob Feller, who passed away in December. A great pre-game video highlighting his career. Feller's wife, Anne, delivered one of the classiest first pitches I've ever seen. In that she didn't throw a pitch at all. Instead she was escorted to the mound by a Marine, and left a ball on the rubber on which she had written "Bobby Keep pitching Anne." Choked me right up, and probably Tom Hamilton too, which is ok because it was proceeded by a moment of silence.
Even though we had a ton of snow this week, the weather was awesome. Now, I wasn't at the field sitting in the shady seats but all we can ask for is NO SNOW!
It took a while but the lineup I've been waiting for to show up, but they managed to eke 8 hits and 4 runs off Buehrle, which is a major success for us. Especially on opening day. We then immediately crushed Buehrle's replacement, Will Ohman, sending him home after 2 outs with a 45.00 ERA.
Acta stuck with his original 9 in the lineup through 9, and everyone got at least one hit. Save for Austin Kearns who at least managed to walk twice.
How about that Jack Hannahan?! Jason Donald who? He kept going at his spring training pace and crushed a one-run dinger in the 7th ending up with 3 hits for the day. His fielding wasn't too shabby either - made a flattened-out stop over at third and managed to put out the batter.
Asdrubal, my man, also went 3-for-5 in the two-spot. Didn't see much fielding from him today but there wasn't much fielding to be had.
Choo's bat was slow today - only one hit - but his rocket arm (or threat thereof) did hold a runner at third.
What of Pronk? TWO hits, and one of them was almost, nearly, just about out of the park (but not quite). Another foul ball went all the way. He's got the power still.
Long reliever Justin Germano didn't bowl anyone over with his pitching but he gave a respectable 3 innings, which seemed to calm the team down enough to start scoring. Frank Hermann struck out 5 over 2 innings and Vinnie Pestano STRUCK OUT THE SIDE!
What do you think about the new red hats? I am kind of in love! Seriously if I find that they fit my fat head, I will own a new hat for the season!
Great game overall today - almost exactly what I was expecting. Starting and middle pitching still getting its legs but nice closing and some solid small-ball. Still looking forward to seeing some exciting plays in the field, but that sort of depends on the pitcher. Still, nice hitting all around.
Can't wait for tomorrow!
Radio Chatter:
"If you didn't know better, based on the weather and the score, the Browns are making a comeback against the Bears!"
- Tom Hamilton
"If you didn't know better, based on the weather and the score, the Browns are making a comeback against the Bears!"
- Tom Hamilton
I'm looking forward to reading about the good aspects of the Indians. I don't know what all of the terms and numbers mean (I know, I'm so undereducated) but I will follow this with hopes to learn the jargon of the game and also to see a better side of the Cleveland teams (who are often hard to see a good side on at all).
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