Victory: Orioles 10, Yankees 5
Any win over the Yankees is great, and any win on Opening Day is special. What the Orioles pulled off today, though, is in something of a class by itself.
In no particular order, here are some of the things I take away from this one:
– What can you say about Jeremy Guthrie? To have the spring he had then turn around and handle the Yankees like he did today is money.
– The little things. Situational hitting, solid defense, heads-up plays. This was a Dave Trembley win.
– Who said Cesar Izturis is all glove? No, seriously. His career average is .260. Today might be the only time he hits a home run all year, sure, but the guy isn’t exactly an embarrassment at the plate.
– Roberts, Jones, Markakis. Show me a better 1-2-3.
– We’re going to be showing Jim Johnson a lot of love again this year.
Mostly, though, I’m proud of the city and the fans today. The boos for Mark Teixeira were an amazing thing to behold, but the consistent energy and excitement really sealed it.
Great day for the team and great day for the city. 1-0, first place. I’ll take it.
(photo borrowed from the Sun/Gene Sweeney Jr)
piggybacking the heyman thread i found a cool new yankees website:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=overrated douchebag baseball team
@Big Ben’s Motorcycle – nice.
as DT said post game. . .”Nice day.” great understatement.
That was a glorious way to start the season. Only wish I could have enjoyed it in person rather than listened from the train/car/watched on TV.
I’m glad Trembley let Chris Ray feed his Yankee Gopher in the 7th inning rather than the 9th. I still get chills when thinking about Ray in this O’s-Yankees tilt.
It was soooo go to be back at the yard yesterday. I love football season, but there’s nothing like Opening Day. For the most part, we looked awesome. The only real bad part was the Ray/Walker/Sarfate 7th inning. The “Brim Reaper” looked good as well as JJ.
I hate missing the TLC live game commenting and I enjoyed reading it this morning.
What a game, boys. Here are some thoughts that I’m sure you all shared as well:
1. GUTHRIE. I’m sorry I doubted you, sir.
2. Jim Hunter officially is on my good side after his blatant and wonderful long pause after announcing Tex and before moving on to Matsui. Way to let the fans into the game and remind the Yanks where they’re playing. Awesome.
3. The fans. I don’t care if the only people watching the game on Wednesday are the ushers. Baltimore still loves their O’s. It wasn’t just corporate douchebags filling up the seats either. It was rowdy, orange-colored, jersey-wearing, sign-carrying REAL FANS. I’ve been saying it for awhile now. O’s fans can feel the positive steps, and they’re ready to forget the past. They won’t always pack the stadium, but it’s a damn good sign that after a full day of rain, it’s the biggest sellout in history. BOOYAH.
4. Gary Thorne is the best thing to happen to Jim Palmer’s commentating in a long time.
5. The MASN presentation looks really good this year. Better graphics, better layout, the whole thing just looks professional. Nice to see.
6. How fucking good is it to have Cesar and ZAUN on this team. It’s like watching a real baseball team now. The O’s can have a 6-5 lead and it’s not guaranteed to turn into a deficit!
7. George Sherrill is FAT. But still awesome.
8. CC’s pants looked like tents flapping in the breeze.
9. In the pre-game interviews, Adam Jones said with a wry smile something like he couldn’t wait to play the Yankees on Opening Day, win the game, and make all those New Yorkers cry. Um… YES.
10. What an at-bat by Luke Scott to work that walk against one of the toughest lefties. Huge, underrated play of the game, especially since he was down 0-2.
I’ll stop there. My goodness what a fun game.
@dan the man – I was incredibly impressed with the way the entire team worked the count and hlped the pitcher usher himself out. If they do that every game, they can pick up at least 3 more wins this season. Especially if it’s Adam Jones working the count in the 2 hole. That was the biggest thing to me.
Also Jim Hunter looked astonishingly ridiculous in an orange bowtie.
Miles, at least you weren’t AT that game. Orioles win 2 of the 3 games that weekend (I was visiting for Easter) and I go to the most disheartening game ever. Ugh.
@Andrew I wasn’t at that game, but I remember quite clearly driving down Roland Avenue, at 41st street near the Rotunda, and letting out a primal scream that must have frightened equal parts of Hampden, Roland Park and Medfield.
Hahahaha, I had taken a cab to the stadium with my girlfriend and rode back in silence…I don’t think I said even one word to her until about 3 hours later.
what a GREAT time. i was out in the bleachers getting rowdy and there were two kids behind me about 5 and 7 yrs. old with their dad and they booed teixera everytime he came to the plate.
can’t wait to go to tomorrow’s
No one has mentioned this, but in addition to his play at third and his homerun, Cesar Izturis also stole a base on Posada in the 3rd inning after a leadoff single. well rounded game eh?
Anyone have any ideas about the crowd turnouts tomorrow and Thursday? I’m sort of pulled back and forth on this. One the one hand, it’s not opening day, so the crowds should dissipate except for the Yankee fans. On the other hand, there weren’t that many Yankee fans there yesterday, and the Yankees do seel well even to Baltimoreans. On the other hand…I could do this all day. I hope it’s still so overwhelmingly pro-Oriole. I know it won’t be, or at least not for long, but it was so nice.
11. ZAUN’s mask is freakin’ sweet. You guys see that?
I’m going to the game on Thursday, if anyone wants to meet up.
I’ve been largely surprised, I guess, by the amount of people outside of Baltimore who don’t understand the traitorade being gulped down greedily yesterday. The only people I heard or read in the past day who seemed to “get” it were Roch and eventually Ken Singleton, who summed it up nicely (and I’m paraphrasing):
“Well, these fans are very, very proud and very, very frustrated”
At first I thought that was a good way of putting it. But then I heard what the Yankee first baseman had to say for himself yesterday and this all changed for me. He went on at length about how much he loved Baltimore and the Orioles and how it wasn’t personal, it was just business.
That got me mad all over again. This guy comes off like the kind of guy that just wants everyone to be happy. He signs with New York and gives this nice speech about how he grew up in Baltimore but loved the Yanks and Don Mattingly and wore his Yankee hat to Memorial Stadium, and had this wonderful account (again paraphrasing):
“People would always say ‘What about Cal? What about Eddie?’, and I’d say ‘Yeah, but they’re no Don Mattingly’.”
FIRST OF ALL, Don Mattingly is no Cal Ripken and certainly no Eddie Murray, the coolest guy to ever play baseball. But come on, is it one way with the New Yorkers and another way with the Baltimoreans?
Dickhead. Oh yes, the hatred is rising again…
@Andrew – latest main page post was inspired by this comment. I was just going to put it here, but then I figured it could use more visibility.