OK, Blue Jays, Let's Play Ball!

I went and saw the home opener for the Jays on Tuesday night. They started off the season with a bang down at the Skydome, (I'll never get used to calling it the Roger's Centre. In fact, I corrected the stadium announcer every time he said it.) They celebrated the team's 30th year with a short video which was a montage of clips from when they started in 1977 to now. It included key players from each year and highlights from each season, from Dave Steib pitching his no hitter to back to back world series in '92 '93 to four of the last ten American League Cy Young Awards.

They followed that up with a touching tribute to Tom Cheek, the man who called every jays game from April 7, 1977 to June 3, 2002, an incredible streak of 4306 games. He passed away due to cancer last year at the age of 66. Later, his wife was on hand to throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the season, caught by my favourite catcher Ernie Whitt, (or Ernie W. Hitt as we called him.)

The boys took the field and played a great game. Halliday pitched well, and despite giving up two solo home runs in six and seven, he came away with the win and one of the new boys B.J. Ryan got the save. Jays home runs were put up by Bengie Molina and Alex Rios which of course added to the excitement. I think this is the first year in about ten that I have actually been excited to see the baseball season start and I have already planned to hit a few more games this season.

Good thing I didn't go last night, they got spanked!

All for now,
Kef...