Opening Day, 2012

I guess this would be considered a sequel to my Opening Day: A Retrospect post. Went to Opening Day on Thursday. Glad the Nationals won but I have yet to see a Nats starting pitcher get the win on Opening Day. And yes, I'm trying to see how many times I can say Opening Day in a sentence before you tire of it.

I woke up the same time I do as I'm going to work, but for some reason it was easier. I actually got down to the area around 9, so I headed to my friend Kim's house for a party. Beer, bagels, champagne. I hung around there for an hour then I headed down early so I could make sure I got one of the opening day hats. I learned my lesson from 2009 when I didn't get the hat. Very crowded, which can be good and bad. I like the energy of a crowd, but with a huge crowd comes the lack of cell coverage and lack of baseball intelligence.

I'm one of those people who do not like people walking up and down the isles or making people get up during game play. I believe you should either wait until the middle or end of the inning to get back to your seat or if you must be watching the game, quickly find a seat that is out of the way and then wait there until the middle/end of inning.

Also, I despise the wave. If I were supreme leader of the world, there would be no wave. It implies that you are bored and are not here for a baseball game. That being said, I can understand a wave starting during an extremely long pitching change or a blowout game. But trying to start the wave during the bottom of the 10th is indefensible. You should have your ability to buy tickets revoked.

My friend Tracy and I found some random guy taking on the Strasburger at the Red Porch. He was a little more than halfway done when we found him.

 According to the Director of Restaurant Operations, he was the first to attempt the burger. She came down, took pictures, gave him her card and I wasn't sure but it felt like she was going to comp his burger. The guy going for the challenge seemed cool. We talked about Man vs Food, old school Nationals and other stuff. I was so smitten with him, I even asked for his twitter (he didn't have one). Surprisingly, he wasn't that big, I would expect a big old fat guy going for the challenge. And for only 59 bucks, this seems like a great deal. I know the 15.4 pound burger at BGR: The Burger Joint is about 80 bucks and this is only 8 pounds.

Guy was doing an excellent job, he used the pizza method. He cut the burger into 8 slices and ate it like that. On his last slice, Tracy and I were escorted out because we were in the aisles. We could either sit and order food or leave, that bummed me out.(I understand this is a restaurant and you can't have people that aren't customers standing around obstructing the waiters but this was not a full restaurant, we could've sat at an empty table and watched or sat at his table, which had 3 empty seats and watched without being in the way or affecting the bottom line of the restaurant)

Afterwards, we ended up meeting up with some friends at the Scoreboard Walk and ended up hanging out until the pregame ceremonies where we quickly dispersed to our seats. Unfortunately I had to sit by myself, I only bought 1 ticket in 404, where my row was surprisingly empty. This was a great game, but it sucked that Gio was not able to get the win. He deserved it. Best Opening Day performance I've seen since Roy Halladay. For the record, I do not blame Brad Lidge. The 2 hits he gave up, the balls weren't hit too hardly. One of those walks was intentional, and I'm convinced the other was one of those unintentional/intentional walks. If Ryan Zimmerman plays closer to the line, those balls are most likely outs. I was told he was playing away from the line in order to protect from the bunt, and the Nats ended up winning so I'm not going to assign blame to anyone, its just one of those things that happened.

Great game, I know its early but its nice being in first place. Would be nice if we went wire to wire, probably won't happen if Utley and/or Howard come back to the Phillies at full strength but for now I will sit back and enjoy the season, and maybe a Strasburger or 2.