Following months of anticipation and breathless counting down of days Sarah and I took in the opening game of the 2008 Cleveland Indians season down at The Ja... er, Prog this afternoon. Luckily, there were no snow-outs at this year's opener (amazing, considering Cleveland was wrapping up its snowiest March on record), there were even had a few moments of actual shadows on the playing field, and the forecast rain showers thankfully never appeared.
The extended opening ceremonies, starting off with a big "Best Of The 2007 Season" clip anthology playing on the scoreboard, were pretty cool. A few moments later, "The Voice Of The Indians" himself, Mr. Tom Hamilton, appeared at a lectern in front of home plate and introduced the entire Indians lineup, right on down to the strength trainers. While all of this was going on, a flag nearly the size of the whole honkin' outfield was unfurled, along with a color guard presentation and some other people holding giant stars at hip level, looking like they were about to start blanket-tossing people at any second. The singing of the National Anthem that capped off all of this was, of course, sung in that American Idol contestant "Hey, I Can Sing Like Mariah Carey, Too!" style (you know, stretching the word "light" into about 6 syllables) that never ceases to drive me up the wall.
Sarah and I attended a game against the Chicago White Sox last September, and while that one was mostly a depressing snooze (Cleveland was completely blanked by Jose freaking Contreras, for chrissakes), today's contest was far more interesting on all levels. At times more of a sloppy shootout than the pitcher's duel we had hoped to see, the game certainly managed to keep your mind on the field as Chicago quickly staked a two run lead that would switch hands three times before the end of the day.
Staff ace C.C. Sabathia was not exactly in Cy Young form, and a rather underwhelming effort from the Cleveland bullpen eventually left the big lefty with a no-decision. As it was, Sabathia was lucky in that respect: while the Indians did ultimately manage to win the contest by a final score of 10-8, most of the team's runs were scored in the second inning, during which the Tribe inflicted a ghastly 37.8 ERA on normally formidable White Sox starter Mark Buerhle.
Sarah was delighted as her hero, the indomitable Rafael Betancourt, not only managed to stop the defensive bleeding by walking one hell of a tightrope through that bizarre eighth inning, but was also finally awarded the win, though a typically dramatic ninth inning tightrope walk by Brodzoski (The Close) briefly made hearts skip a beat around the Indians Nation.1 down, 161 to go.
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