And so, it begins...

I love opening night. And in hate it just the same. It's the start of a new season, a fresh start, a new beginning, you know, all that crap. But its great to finally get things started, especially this year. A brand-spanking new stadium, a high-profile player in the house and all the buzz associated with it. And all the nonsense as well. The second game has always been more satisfying for me. All the pomp and circumstance is out of the way. But here we were. And everything is a little different this year. With 14 seasons in the books, I've fallen into a bit of a routine. I always park in the same place... but not this year. i always go in the same gate...but not this year. We always have a new uniform shirt and jacket or sweatshirt of some sort...well, close on that one. As I made my way onto the Island, there was a long line of traffic. Good and bad. Lots of folks in the house tonight, but getting where I needed to go was going to be a challenge. I saw the familiar faces of the parking lot guys, so that was good. Made it to the Walnut Street and there was Chuck, also good. The foot traffic was funneled behind temporary barriers so I didn't have to dodge the fans. Things were looking up. As I went to turn into our regular parking lot, it was fenced off! Spoke too soon. So I headed around back and made a quick call to Knute. As I was waiting, one of the back parking lot guys came over to check on me. The voice was familiar and so was the face. It was Shaggy, one of the clean-up guys from a few years back. Good to see another familiar face. I finally ended up parking up at the beach house and hiking back to the ballpark. I've been spoiled all these years, parking behind the outfield fence and slipping in the back gate, no muss, no fuss. Well I made it through the back gate, no problem. "Back-gate Ron" was at his familiar post, good to see another thing hadn't changed. I got dressed and headed up to the field. The New Britain Rock Cats were the opponent for the first series and they were still out on the field taking batting practice. Most of the guys were there already, with Alan and Izzy still fighting the traffic like I had a little while earlier. As I looked around, I could see the chaos beginning to build. As the Cats finished up Alan and Izzy arrived and we started the BP tear-down. Pretty smooth, I must say, even with the new cage. It came right down with no effort at all and we even got it through the back gate with a minimum of trouble. We hustled back to start the pre-game prep, since we would need to finish early due to the festivities before first pitch. In the house, and I must say, I was more than a little surprised, was Mayor Linda Thompson and Governor Ed Rendell. I really didn't expect either to show up, but here they were ready to fill the unusually warm April evening with even more hot air. But I wasn't prepared for the crowd reaction when the Mayor stood at the podium to speak. She was roundly booed by the near capacity crowd, which was, by the way, the largest opening night crowd I have ever seen in my 15 years with the Senators. Her response was less than gracious, which fanned the flames even more. A very awkward situation. It was extremely rude, I thought, whether they felt it was deserved or not and cast a shadow on what was, otherwise, a great day for baseball in Harrisburg. Governor Rendell was next and he was also booed, although to a somewhat lesser extent. But he handled with much more grace and defused the animosity before it could escalate any further. Finally, after all the hoopla, the game did get under way. Since the boys won exactly 1 game so far this year, we weren't expecting too much. But, they were playing the worst team in the North division or the Eastern Division I guess its called now. Realignment since Norwich moved to Richmond, another change. But they fell behind early, did manage to score a few runs and going to the 9th, were down 4-3. New Britain scored 1 in the top half of the 9th to take a 5-4 lead. we had a good feeling, though, starting the bottom of the 9th. There was still a substantial part of the crowd remaining and the new on-field entertainment coordinator, Bob Hauer was whipping them into a frenzy. Something must have clicked and the boys banged out a few hits and ultimately plated the winning run sending the Opening Crowd happy and christening out the new digs with its 1st W. it was a much more satisfying finish to rough start. We loaded up and knocked out the post game work and afterward enjoyed an adult beverage to celebrate the 1st win in the new house. we all headed for home to rest up, for the real chaos would be tomorrow night, the first home pitching appearance by the wunderkind, Stephen Strasburg. Until then, later...