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Hope Cards Opener A Sign of the New Season
by Randy Gardner
What an opening day for the Cardinals and their fans.I was glued to the TV from the 6th inning on. I watched the opening ceremonies and then came back as the Cardinals were wining 1-0, then Randall Gritchuk hit the homer to put us up by two and then it happened. What the Cubs did all of last year, came back from an improbable score and tied it up, you could almost feel it coming as OH was wearing down.
What a way to get into the 9th inning but what a way to end the ballgame as Gritchuk came back up and deliver a bomb to left field to win the game. (If they had needed 3 runs to win, it would have cleared the bases.) Actually that is the way to start an opening day off.
I bet though when it started to rain near 11 p.m. that many people left and they missed all the excitement. That is what would have happened to me. I would pay all that money for tickets and then leave when it started to rain and the Cards were up and then one of the most exciting games of the year would take place and I would be listening to it in the car on the way home.
Overall I thought the Cards looked solid both on the mound and at the plate besides the mental error by Matt Carpenter that almost cost the game. Even at the pro level, the fundamentals that we teach our kids on the field every day can easily be forgotten.
It’s a long season, so don’t get to excited over one game. One thing we can all be excited for is the signing of Yada Molina to the huge contract, 3 years, $60 million. That comes out to about $120,000 dollars a game or 60,000 dollars a day for 3 years. If that is to an incentive for a young man to get out an practice everyday to make it to the big leagues, I don’t know what is. By now we know the outcome of the 3-game opening series against the Cubs.
Final Game in NCAA Tourney always Fun
How about that National Championship basketball game. It was a barnburner although a little sloppy late in the game. Just watching the game had me on the edge of my seat. There is nothing like a stadium of 75,000 people watching a college sport. There is so much passion at the events in the stadium and it spills over to the TV audience.
Just watching these kids, and they are kids at just 18-22 years old, perform at this level in front of these size crowds is unreal. There is so much pressure on these guys.
Watching the crowd, it seemed like Gonzaga had more fans routing for them. I think maybe because they had never won a championship before and the fact that Washington location is bit closer to Arizona than North Carolina. The Zags fell short though as the Tarheels won it all again. Either way it was a lot of fun with two number one seeds in the final game.
A note for all of you baseball coaches out there, be patient I know mother nature is not working in your favor right now with all of the rain. It seems like it is raining every other day now and the fields are unable to dry out so many teams are not even going to see an infield ‘till the first game day. This is what is happening with my teams. All we can do is hitting practice in a cage right now. So my team will have to just outscore the other team at the plate because our unfolding will be horrible.
Hopefully the remember there positioning from last year along with where to throw the ball when it comes to them. Okay, maybe Im exaggerating a bit but We all need a bit of time in the infield. We need some sun and nice temperatures.
