Notes From Opening Day!!!

The Mets' Opening Day victory was incredibly sweet, helping to wash away some more of the lingering bitterness from last year. Some notes from the game, which we attended live in Miami:

...it's hard to get excited about the current Marlins team, of course, but watching a baseball game in a stadium that is so blatantly a football stadium was quite distracting. Shea Stadium was, first and foremost, a baseball stadium, so watching a Jets' game there was never a bad experience (unless you want to discuss the swirling winds that gave old Candlestick a run for its money!) Axccording to Jonathan, the remodelling inside the stadium (c0ncessions, boxes, new seats) is excellent, but the sitelines and set-up are still so reflective of a football game that it seems as bad as the dimensions from this weekends' Coliseum game between the Dodgers and Red Sox - although it's not, but it seems that way...

...there were FAR more Mets fans, at least in colors, then Marlins fans last night, and the chants of "Jose, Jose Jose Jose," and "Let's Go Mets" drowned out whatever the Marlins' fans could come up with. Whenever a Mets' fan was shown on the video screen, a cartoon version of Marlins' mascot, Billy the Marlin, could be seen throwing a cartoon pie at his face - which just made Mets' fans laugh! I was surprised no middle fingers came up!... and the 2 biggest cheers went to David Wright, after his double ("MVP" "MVP") and, of course, for Santana after he came out of the game! Great to sit in another team's stands, surrounded by Mets' fans!!!...

...Johan looked very good, not great, last night...now don't lynch me, but there were no more than a handful of groundballs hit by the Marlins off Santana last night, and even with 8 strike-outs and nice movement on his pitches, the radar gun never went over 91mph. I know that Santana is a slow starter in April, which explains a lot, and we are NOT criticizing Santana at ALL! What we ARE saying is that last night doesn't even represent the best of what Johan is capable of producing, and we can't wait until THAT time comes - like, say, early MAY!!! I mean- WOW!!! Santana at 91 mph was incredibly dominant- of course, coming versus the Marlins AAA roster- but still, with his movement, changing speeds and confidence, not to mention smarts and guile, Santana is everything we've heard about- and more!...

...the parking lots at Dolphins Stadium are so big, there are bicycles built to carry 4-6 people at a time across the lot to the stadium - or, you could do the old-fashioned thing and WALK!!!...

...Marlon Anderson did it again- a pinch-hit! He is so valuable off the bench I actually understand why Willie is reluctant to start him in place of Alou!...

...Unlike other bloggers and some fans we spoke to, we DON'T think that Willie was managing well yesterday in bringing in Wise and Schoeneweis and Sosa before Heilman- in fact, Heilman seemed not to agree, either, as when the call came to the bullpen for the "righty" he went to walk out of the bullpen, only to be told that the call was for Sosa, not him. Willie made every Mets' fan squirm in the stands, and we couldn't believe that there was a chance that we might lose that game! Wise didn't look great, nor did Schoeneweis, and Sosa thankfully did...and of course Heilman looked great, as usual...sorry, there's going to be a gag-reflex every time Willie makes what looks like the wrong decision, based off of last year's collapse, which won't go away lightly, no matter how many times we say it will or wish it will...and again, we don't think he made the right call as shades of Looper blowing Pedro's first game as a Met came to mind...it took all we had to remind ourselves that it was only Opening Day, as thoughts of Santana having victory taken from him, in any way, would have been way to much to deal with!!!...

...after Johan finished warming up in the bullpen, a bunch of Mets' players came over to him and gave him hugs- showing just how much he is already valued on the team, already, even before he had thrown a meaningful pitch...it was great to see!...

...tonite, for game two, we'll be right on top of Pedro, sitting 4 rows back from the dugout halfway between home and first- and we'll post pics tomorrow afternoon (flying back to California in the morning)...let's hope we make it two dominating pitching performances in a row!!...

...back later...