Opening Day Liveblog: Yankees at Orioles

4.27 PM: I've done it! Made it back from class before the first out. And look at that! Jeter hitting lead off in his first AB goes deep in the count and lines a single to center. The weather in New York might be awful, but I am in a pretty good mood right now.

4.30 PM: Boos for Teixeira, but I guess that was expected given how many thought he might go to the Orioles.

4.31 PM: Lead off single by Jeter wasted. Cue the ledge crawlers.

4.36 PM: CC gives up a hit! Stop the presses! CC is a massive bust in New York!

4.37 PM: CC walked someone! The 2009 season is already over!

4.45 PM: CC and Jorge can't agree on this 2-2 pitch to Mora. I imagine that this will be less of an issue as the season moves on.

4.42 PM: Melvin Mora lives in Baltimore year round. Now tell me, if you lived in Baltimore, would you recognize Mora if you passed him on the street?

4.46 PM: Two wild pitches for Sabathia this inning...good play by Ransom to get the out at home. Ransom had plenty of time and didn't rush the throw.

4.47 PM: Great stop by Jeter and the Yankees get out of the first inning, score still 0-0. How awesome would it be if Jeter had a career year in 2009?

4.53 PM: Nady's hitting eighth? Can we say major unrealistic expectations for this line up?

4.56 PM: Goal for third inning AB: have the baserunner, you know, get past first base, by any means necessary.

5.02 PM: Much better inning for CC. Nice and easy.

5.07 PM: Would love to see Gardner go here...

5.09 PM: That'll do nicely! Great hit and run, perfect execution! The speed in Gardner really is something, and I can't wait to get a full season of that!

5.11 PM: The first run of the 2009 Yankee season! A manufactured run, old school! The excitement builds!

5.13 PM: Ball carried well off of Matsui's bat but not quite enough. Still, one run for your team is always better than none. Would love to see some insurance runs, but this game is three innings long. There's plenty of time.

5.20 PM: Did Posada really have shoulder surgery? That was a Molina-esque throw, even if the base was stolen on Sabathia.

5.21 PM: Sabathia working himself into trouble. Maybe he just likes living dangerously.

5.23 PM: Now 2-1 Orioles. Sabathia not looking good this inning at all, but 2-1 is not exactly a blow out. Neither is 3-1, as the score is now.

5.31 PM: Yankees not exactly putting up an offensive fight against Guthrie, but there's still plenty of time.

5.34 PM: Hot shot by Ransom but great defensive stop from Mora. Guess it's one of those games.

5.37 PM: Yeah, not the best pitching performance ever for Sabathia. One has to hope that the hot-water-bottle-on-abdomen is not the hint of an injury.

5.44 PM: Zaun just got under that one, good play by Damon, and still, a shaky performance at best from CC.

5.45 PM: That double play may have been a gift from G-d.

5.50 PM: Johnny D with a stand up triple! Any other part of the park and the score is 3-2. A little interested in Sabathia's use of the heat pad. I can attest to the miraculous, wonderful power of heating pads. I even have the burn marks to prove it.

5.53 PM: I'm not so sure I like Matsui batting clean up over Posada with the injured A-Rod. I'm still not sold Matsui's swing is back, but Posada's arm looks decent thus far. I'm sure there's a really basic reason for hitting Matsui clean up that I'm just missing.

5.59 PM: Ayayaya, not looking pretty. Nice try by Ransom, but 'nice try' isn't quite enough when the games count.

6.01 PM: You get the feeling the Yankees may only be seconds from disaster.

6.06 PM: Yeah, not good.

6.08 PM: 5-1 is a different ballgame than 3-1, especially in the fifth inning. Thinking optimistically, though, the Yankees lost their first three games in 1998...

6.13 PM: Not quite the way Sabathia wanted to debut with the Yankees, I'm sure.

6.18 PM: NICE play by Gardner! Great catch, and great throw. Yankees have quite a bit to do offensively, but you have to start somewhere. Also worth noting, CC's first start last year: 5.1 IP, 6 hits 5 runs 5 earned runs 2 homers 3 walks 7 Ks. He was certainly more ineffective this time around, but it goes to show that Opening Day starts do not necessarily mean anything.

6.21 PM: Rallies have to start somewhere, right? First Yankee HR of the year off of Jorge Posada's bat. Are we sure he had surgery in the offseason?

6.23 PM: STOP THE PRESSES! Robbie Canó just walked!

6.24 PM: And now Canó scores on a nice piece of hitting by Xavier Nady, and a 6-3 ballgame is a different affair.

6.32 PM: Bad judgment from Nady. Can't quite blame Nady if he thought the ball would get through, but even so a 6-3 game can be tied on one swing; a 6-1 game can't. Here's hoping the 'pen does its job and the Yankees go back out in the seventh and get three more runs.

6.39 PM: Teaching moment: How not to (try to) steal a base.

6.45 PM: Uehara, the starter for Baltimore tomorrow, is the first Japanese player in Baltimore's history, which begs the question: how many teams have never had a Japanese player?

6.52 PM: Speaking of Japanese players, jack from Matsui and now we're back to a one-run game.

7.00 PM: Okay, now I get the Matsui clean up thing. The staggered line up must not be a whole lot of fun for Dave Trembley...

7.04 PM: If there's one time not to hit into a double play, that was it. Stillm two innings to make up one run. It's doable, provided the bullpen does its job.

7.10 PM: Lead off walks don't count as pitching doing its job...

7.11 PM: Double plays help, though!

7.16 PM: Swisher gets the pinch-hit, and now we get to see Ramiro Peña on the basepath and at third.

7.17 PM: Not a great bunt from Gardner, but it gets the job done and now tying run at third with just one out and Jeter at bat.

7.19 PM: And Captain Clutch was not very clutch.

7.23 PM: Dramatic moment, for sure. And Teixeira's day may perhaps be as discomforting as Sabathia's, 0-fer and a heck of a lot more boos.

7.30 PM: And Cesar Izturis may have quelched the Yankees' hopes.

7.43 PM: Not a very good appearance from Bruney, either. For a team that's supposed to be built on pitching, this is, erm, quite the game.

It's the Most Wonderful Day of the Year...well, Except for the Weather

There is nothing, and I mean nothing, in American sports as wonderful as Opening Day!

Of course, given the rain and snow today that is more or less soaking the entire country, you'd never know it. Already two games have been postponed (CHW/KC and BOS/TB) and I'd be a little shocked if they played ball in Saint Louis.

This begs the simple question: Why do so many Opening Day games take place in cold weather cities, where there are no domed or retractable roofs?

It hasn't been until recently that Opening Day started this early in April (in non-WBC years it's April 1 or earlier), but the fact is, early April weather is a gamble in a lot of places, not least of which is New York.

In the American League, Tampa, Toronto, Minnesota (this year only), Seattle, Oakland, Los Angeles and Texas all either play in warm or warm(er) weather or with domed/retractable roofs. That's seven teams in a fourteen-team league--exactly half. That would make it entirely possible to hold Opening Day games and opening series all in warm weather or indoor locations, where weather would likely not be a factor. It's true, Minnesota's moving into a new, outdoor and roofless (in Minnesota, huh?) park next year, which would mean one AL series would have to take place in questionable weather, but even then, a city like Baltimore is far less of a gamble than, say, Kansas City.

In the National League, Milwaukee, Houston, Atlanta, San Francisco, San Diego, Arizona and Los Angeles all are warm weather or have retractable roofs--I've left Florida off the list because of the propensity to rain. Seven teams in a sixteen team league is a little less than half, but if two non-roofed teams play each other in the first series (perhaps in Washington or Florida), then that's only one game that needs to risk bad weather.

Baseball is an unusual sport in that it is so dependent on weather--games are called due to rain or snow--and that's never stopped a season before. Still, there's a difference between suggesting all of April being played in warm weather and just the opening series.

Yes, there's still significant weather risk throughout much of the rest of April, but Opening Day is something that exists on a higher plateau than just any other regular season game--doesn't it deserve to be protected in that every game has a reasonable shot at being played?

Just some food for thought.

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I had wanted to liveblog the game today, but I may not be able to catch the first three or four innings, so that probably won't go along very well. Wednesday won't work, either (first night of Passover), but maybe Thursday will be kind...