The Greatest Sports Day Ever

There were too many Cheap Seats to choose from yesterday, so I just parked myself in front of the TV and watched it all play out. Yesterday could've been great on its own for the simple reason that it was opening day of the Major League Baseball season. My TV was set to ESPN or ESPN 2 for nearly the entire day as the Yankees blew out the Devil Rays in The House That Ruth Built, the Braves took a thrilling 10-inning win in Philly, the Royals shocked Curt Schilling and the Red Sox in front of a sold out Kaufmann Stadium, and the Twins raised the air-inflated roof in Minneapolis with a solid win over the Orioles.

Oh, but it did not end there! As the day of baseball was winding itself down, it came time to crown ourselves a champion in the world of collegiate basketball. Now, while I have quite a distaste for both of the teams that competed for the crystal basketball (both teams completely screwed over my bracket, after all), I had to lean a bit towards the Florida Gators, since they're not the team that I dislike from my own conference. Plus, an OSU victory would mean I'd have to listen to my roommate complain about his friends from the Buckeye State lording the victory over him. Luckily for us, Florida decided to pull off the repeat for the first time since Mike Krzyzewski's Duke Blue Devils pulled it off in 1993.

So ended the greatest sports day I have ever been through. True, the basketball championship and baseball's opening day have coincided for several years now, but I've never really been as excited about it as I am this year. I'm still not entirely sure why, but I'm not going to complain about it. I just wish I could've been at one of the two events. Alas, I'm 500 miles away from my favorite baseball team, and my favorite basketball team has been sent home until October 14.

As for that favorite baseball team, they didn't really fare all too well in the midst of yesterday's festivities. Still, I see no need for a huge panic to be incited in the Nation's Capital (though the writers at the Washington Post don't seem to understand that...go ahead, click on the post link and see what they have to say). After all, the Nationals will only take the field 161 more times over the next six months. A 9-2 loss to a pitcher like Dontrelle Willis is nothing to be overly worried about. True, Nook Logan and Christian Guzman, who are supposed to be two of the bigger contributers this year, managed to receive minor injuries. Still, the Nats have been dealing with this kind of adversity since the days playing in front of 2,000 people at Montréal's Olympic Stadium as the Expos. Stan Kasten and Jim Bowden have been promising to deliver a great product, but it will take a while to undo the hurts caused to this team by Major League Baseball's shabby ownership.

On a side note, I will be attending yet another baseball game come Saturday evening. For my third trip to the diamond this year, I'll be watching the Indianapolis Indians take on the Columbus Clippers (Nationals farm club...can you say conflict of interest?) at beautiful, BEAUTIFUL Victory Field in downtown Indianapolis. I'll have photographs for you at the beginning of next week. Until then, happy Passover, Easter, Etc.