Pirates Defeat Dodgers on Opening Day

love it hope to see a lot more of this…if only lol.

It’s good that we should get a good amount of plate discipline from most of the lineup. It seemed like most if not all of the previous “core” would always swing at the first pitch they saw.

Possible upside of the Dodger’s pitching situation: premium prospects from Colletti for our mediocre arms at the deadline?

we are going to do it this year

Its a nice start but only time will tell, of course.
Nice to see Moss go to AAA Indy – maybe he still has something to show.

Just got back from the game. I was also ecstatic to see Jones continue his awesome story. I fully expected him to start cold and never recover, but that’s because I’m always guarded against getting too optimistic. He made two very nice defensive plays, to boot. I’m beginning to believe.

Some other random things of note:

-I was very disappointed to hear a decent number of fans booing LaRoche when he came up to bat. It was by no means widespread, but there were enough boos and various “You suck!”s thrown out to make me angry.

-Jones got a pretty good pop during intros and his first at-bat. Second only to McCutchen.

-Happily, there wasn’t a ton of Steelers and Penguins gear at the game.

-Much to my relief, Doumit kept “Mother” by Danzig as his intro music.

A funny moment happened during the trivia quiz (where you get either the prize or the mystery box)*. The woman answered the question correctly (“Who was the last Pirates pitcher to hit a homer on Opening Day?”). The host then asked if she’d like the mystery box, with the not so subtle hint that “the prizes on Opening Day are usually pretty good!”. The woman said no, that she’d prefer to take the jacket. The host said, “Well, let me just take a peek,” then looked inside and said “It’s pretty good…I can tell you it’s two tickets! Do you want the box?” The woman instantly responded, “No, I like the jacket.” The host was flummoxed for a second-he was all but inviting her to take the damn mystery prize—then said “Well, it’s so good, we’re going to give you the prize anyway…two season tickets!” I guess her stubbornness paid off, as she got to keep both prizes!

-They played the old school train animation from Three Rivers! I vaguely recall seeing it a few years back at PNC, but I’m not sure. I don’t pay much attention to the Jumbotron, but hearing the train made me check. I hope it makes its way into the rotation more often; that animation rules.

*If I’m ever picked for the trivia game, I don’t know if I’d be patient enough to wait for the question. There is a 100% certainty I’m taking the box, regardless of what I won.

but have to run out to watch the NCAA title game. I’ll post more thoughts tomorrow. I had to leave in the 8th so I didn’t see the ball Aki missed. But, through 7 the defense made six good to very good plays. Two by Garrett Jones, the second an excellent running in catch that Charlie mentioned, one by Clement, two by Cedeno, one in getting a runner hung up between second and third, one by Milledge—and the other escapes me. The two balls Charlie mentioned that got through the left side really weren’t playable from my viewpoint.

Oh, one other thing. MVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVPMVP

You get the idea. Big day for GJ.

on the CBS.Sports equivalent of Gameday – d*!#$% web-meisters and their narrow-minded blocking of anything even mildly relaxing – you know, MLB.com audio, World Poker Net.com, the unauthorized Baywatch site.

Anyway, I was going to comment on all the things that felt different, even though it was only one game. But then I saw on MLB-TV (which has an ESPN-like lack of air-time f/small market games) that the Pirates have won their last 4 opening day games.

So I’ll just watch the highlights, cross my fingers, and hope we’re not back to .500 tomorrow.

i said back in several fanposts over the offseason i was confident Jones could easily hit 30HR while everyone else said they would be happy if he matched the 21HRs…well here is to me being positive about guy!

Couple of notes:

*Woody Huyke, being honored before the game, was wearing an incredibly eye-gouging orange jacket.

*They’ve started showing the words to “O Fortuna” on the CC board during the opening movie with the pirate ships, which is nice. My dad and I always tried to sing along in past years (“O Fortuna/velut luna/stata misirialibis…”), but we inevitably lost the thread partway through, so the help is appreciated.

*The first pitch was those two local girls who ran the orphanage in Haiti. The one who was throwing tossed the ball in a big arc, like it was a hand grenade. Still, she got it to the catcher on the fly, and that’s more than you can say about some first pitch honorees.

*The anthem was a local nine-year-old, who has just a killer voice for her age. She got a nice ovation, and deserved it.

*Of the new scoreboard intros for the players, my favorite was one that zoomed in on the players’ hometowns on a map then showed a shot of the player along with a fact about something else that comes from the same town.

*There was a row of flagpoles behind the RF grandstand with flags of our years in the WS (gold for losses, black for wins). Are those new? I don’t remember seeing them before…

for his bullpen in 2010 when that bullpen was the best in the NL in 2009, helped very much by a Pirate castoff who would have looked out of place in the Dodger bullpen on opening day in 2009. The Dodgers are currently missing two of their top three bullpen pitchers and when they return shortly, some of the names who appeared on opening day will be gone.
For whatever reason the Dodgers over the last decade have taken scrap heap pitchers and found some life still in those arms. It happens every year and so this year it might be Ramon Ortiz.
http://www.truebluela.com/2010/3/24/1388499/scrap-heap-gold

We do appreciate the Beimel and Belisario’s you throw our way, if you have any others, be sure to let Ned know.

I’m really annoyed at you guys. I’ve always been irritated by ignorant loudmouths at the ballpark, but, having become a regular BD reader, there are now about 20% more comments that I find irritating, such as the guy bitching that Dotel wasn’t throwing strikes with his first 2 pitches. The guy’s a strikethrower! He was probably just a bit hyped.

But anyway, in the past I probably wouldn’t have known that our newest closer is the last guy to pitch around hitters, and so wouldn’t have been as irritated. So thanks for nothing, BD.

OTOH, I was in line with a youngish guy whom I suspect of being a BD reader – he was pretty much spouting party line* on the ignorant pessimism of the local media, of NH’s bullpen approach, of which guys to watch this year…. So ’fess up, any of you who were waiting in the unaccountably slow soda line near the Primanti Bros on the first level.

• Not intended pejoratively – it was just uncanny how much it sounded like the threads around here

I’m surprised this didn’t get mentioned in one of the game threads: the scoreboard at one pointed credited one “Nyger Morgan” with scoring a run (or something) in the Nationals game.

I didn’t check gamecast, but Aki saw A LOT of pitches yesterday and it was great to see that Padila wasn’t going to last more than five. A nice change to start the season.