First trip to the Jake on Opening Day '06

[SOBO]

Man what a great day to break my cherry. Wahoo!!!!

Course traffic was horrible and I got in half an inning late, but the Christmas present I bought for myself and the soon to be inlaws (father and brother in law that is); was well worth it.

As a non-native NE Ohioan, the Browns always came first; but it wasn't until moving to the area where I became empassioned with the Tribe.

So I never got to experience the joy of the mid 90's and it took names like Victor, Pronk, and Westbrook to make me fall in love with this team.
Today was the culmination of that lovefest.

Somehow the Lord smiled upon Cleveland today and held off the rain for that solid 3 hours needed to whip the Twinkies asses. I'll tell you right now though that it was damn cold most of the game. And the eery fog that blew in was just amazing. I don't even know how the players were picking up popups for about 4 or 5 innings.

At one point I was starting to get worried I wouldn't see a HR in my Jake debut, but I'll be damned if i didn't go bonkers with Casey at the bat and going Grand Salomi. I had a grin from ear to ear and didn't sit down for another inning I believe.

Then Pronk decides to make my day better with two laser beams for jacks. And all I could think to myself was my fiance telling me only days earlier in regards to Hafner, "You really like him, don't you?" Yes. Yes I do.

Then top it all off by seeing my favorite up and coming player shut down the ninth to finish it up; and it was almost picture perfect for this late annointed fan.

My only dissappoinments were that I didn't get the opportunity to kick any Native American protestors for the helluva it; or because of Lent I couldn't eat a ballpark frank.

It might have been a typical Cleveland afternoon in April; but it was just heavenly to me.

[consigliere]

Glad you had a good time SOBO, and it is always nice to put one in the win column at the home opener.

Cabrera in the 9th yesterday was THE Cabrera we expect to see. Nasty. Hopefully his troubles in the season opener at Chicago was a one game thing, which I believe it to be.

[swerb]

Sobo, good to hear you had a good time. I just realized yesterday ... it's been four years since I've been to the opener. My wife scheduled our sons 9 mo doc checkup for yesterday of all days ...

The good news is, the apptmt was at 2:10, and I got a chance to get home and saddle up for what was a very entertaining ball game. It's early, but this team looks very good. Exciting, talented, fun to watch. 1994/1995 all over again, maybe not with the same flair, but as exciting nonetheless.

Cabrera ... dude was absolutely FILTHY in the 9th yesterday. Lets hope the opener was just a biproduct of rust, a 3 hour rain delay, and a screwy spring that was fubarred by the WBC. If Cabrera can bring THAT to the table 4 of every 5 outings, bully has a chance to be '05 nasty again in '06.

Bully as a whole has been encouraging outside of Graves. Buff said it best in The B-List. "This man scares me." However, we got Davis, A.Brown, and ac couple others chomping at the bit ready for that final bullie spot.

Is Karsay still our property?

[consigliere]

Karsay is still here, although probably not much longer (I believe his out is somewhere around the 15th-20th of this month).