My Plan to Fix Opening Day

This post is about a month late, but I didn't have a blog a month ago.  Are you aware that Major League Baseball had four Opening Days this year?  That's just dumb.  It worked out well for me because three of the four happened during my Easter vacation.  Let's go through the Opening Days:


Opening Day 1:  March 28, Mariners vs. A's in Tokyo.  This game started at either 2 or 3 in the morning on the west coast, where almost all Mariners or A's fans live.  I'm going to say that the majority of baseball fans didn't even realize the regular season was starting.  If your season starts and nobody knows about it, that's a problem.  And if you did know about it, you probably couldn't watch it.  I would have gotten up to watch some of it before going to work.  The game was on MLB Network, but it wasn't being shown live, so I did not get to see any of it.  Who thought this was a good idea?  Much like Bill Simmons's idea that babies born on Leap Year Day shouldn't be recognized, this game and the one the following day just shouldn't have been recognized.


Opening Day 2:  April 4, Cardinals vs. Marlins at night.  I guess it's a good thing that one of the Opening Days featured the World Series Champions.  I watched some before going to wing night on the first night of my vacation (let us never speak of that wing night again, Bobby knows what I'm talking about).  This was a one game series, which was pretty silly.


Opening Day 3:  April 5, fourteen teams start their seasons.  Why didn't all the other teams start on this day?  That would have made a little sense.


Opening Day 4:  April 6, the other twelve teams finally get started.  This was nine days after the regular season officially started.


So this really is the easiest problem in baseball to fix:  One Opening Day.  Problem solved.  But if you want more details, I'll give them to you.  Every game is played in the United States.  Sorry Canada, the Blue Jays should start every season on the road.  In return, all Canadian hockey teams should get to open their season at home against an American team (or have every Canadian team open against another Canadian team, if you like that better).  I think Canada will take that deal.  And I don't know what Opening Day was like decades ago, but I remember the season usually starting on a Monday (perhaps with one game the night before).  I never liked that.  Teams play afternoon games and people are at work and kids are at school.  So to fix that problem, we move Opening Day to Sunday.  I know series never start on Sundays, but it would make sense for Opening Day.  We have 28 teams play afternoon games leading up to the main event, which is the World Series Champion hosting a night game, possibly against the team they beat in the LCS.


You're welcome, Major League Baseball.

This is where the Jets won Super Bowl III

The Jets may be run by a bunch of clowns today, but there wouldn't have been a Super Bowl IV if the Jets had lost Super Bowl III.

It's also where Notre Dame won the 1975 and 1990 Orange Bowls.

Yes, Marlins Park was built on the site of the old Orange Bowl.  I'm sure Marlins Park is about a million times better than playing in the Dolphins' stadium, but I wasn't overly impressed.  First, baseball is meant to be played outdoors.  This was my first ever indoor baseball game.  I know it starts raining all the time in Miami, but I think they could have had the roof open last night.  Also, we had the air conditioning blowing on our backs the whole game.  It was cold at our seats.  Having the roof closed also meant no flags blowing in the wind.  When it was time for the national anthem, I didn't know where to look and it took me a while to find the American flag.  The flag was kind of hidden near that ridiculous homerun thing in left center.  It should be easier to find the flag.  This really bothered me.  The flag should be much bigger and it should be on a much bigger flagpole.  Also, they have a pool in left field, but it's very hidden.  We walked around the whole stadium and I couldn't see the pool from anywhere in the stadium.  It's in like a cave out there in left.  And as a Boston Beer Company stockholder, the other thing I didn't like was the beer selection.  It was pretty much Bud Light, Heineken, and Corona everywhere.  Can we get some Sam Adams Summer Ale in there?

The one thing that I haven't noticed at other stadiums (maybe some have this, but I never noticed it before) that I liked was that besides labeling the distances to the outfield wall, they had distances labelled beyond the outfield wall.  I thought that was cool.  The food selection seemed pretty good.  I had grilled mahi mahi tacos.  They were expensive, but very good.  On the other hand, the tickets were not expensive.  We were in section 8 row 13.  The seats were $31 each.  When I bought the tickets on stubhub, I looked up equivalent seats at Yankee Stadium on the same day and they were going for for $225.

You're not going to find seats like this in New York for $31, unless the Mets are really, really bad.

As for the game, it was a good one.  Both pitchers got off to a shaky start in the first inning, but it turned out to be quite a pitching matchup.  It was Anibal Sanchez for the Marlins and Ian Kennedy for the Diamondbacks.  (By the way, one of my friends has a great Ian Kennedy story.  Let's just say that names were changed to protect the not so innocent.  I won't incriminate him by telling it, but I encourage him to comment on this post and tell the story.)  Sanchez gave up two runs and left the bases loaded in the first inning.  He was over 50 pitches after two innings.  Then he settled down.  He only gave up the two runs, went seven innings, and struck out 14.  Kennedy went six and a third and only allowed one run (driven in by every Mets fan's favorite player, Jose Reyes).  Logan Morrison hit a homerun in the eighth to tie it so we got to see the ridiculous homerun thing in action.  And then Hanley Ramirez had an RBI single with two outs in the ninth to win the game for the Marlins.

I like the Citi Field homerun apple better.

So that was my first game of the season.  Interestingly, it was played by two teams that didn't exist when I started watching baseball and the last two teams to beat the Yankees in the World Series.  This was my first trip since I came up with the Year of Jim idea, but I think the Year of Jim really started last year (it's going to be like Major League Baseball's Opening Day being four different days, more on this in my next post).  In less than a year, I've added New Hampshire, California, Nevada, and North Carolina to the list of states I've visited.  I've added three baseball stadiums (Citizens Bank Park, Dodger Stadium, and Marlins Park).  And I've been as far west as I've ever been (Los Angeles), as far south as I've ever been (Miami), and as far north and east as I've ever been (New Hapshire).

My next trip is less than two weeks away.  I'll be seeing the Orioles take on the Rays on May 12.  I'll have at least one more post before that trip.

Winston Churchill, Vincent Antonelli, and Me

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."  That quote is from one of my heroes, Winston Churchill.  As you probably know, my school is closing after this year so I don't have a job for next year.  If you know my friend Darryl, he would say that everything happens for a reason.  I've argued with him about this, but I am choosing to look on the bright side of this situation.  I also thought of this quote from Steve Martin as Vincent Antonelli in My Blue Heaven:  "See you guys see a problem; I see potential."  (By the way, I feel like a lot of my friends are much bigger movie fans than I am, but that not a lot of people know about this movie.  It stars Steve Martin as an Italian mobster in witness protection and it's a great movie.  If you haven't seen it, you should.)  So if I'm not going to have a job (and I still might, it's not like I've given up hope of trying to find one), I'm going to make this into a positive.  Thanks to my friend John for suggesting the idea of blogging about what I'll be spending my time doing and for giving me the title of the blog.


The other day I had my last graduate class (you know, until the highly likely event that I go back to graduate school within the next two years).  Thanks to my parents for putting me through college and myself for putting me through graduate school and four years of teaching, I have no debt and a good amount of money saved.  There have been times when I've thought to myself, not having a job right now would be pretty cool (like during the first two days of the NCAA basketball tournament or every weekday afternoon baseball game).  So while I hope to find a job, not having one would present some opportunities for me.


What will the Year of Jim entail?  Well, if you know me, you know that there are few things that I love more than the United States and sports.  There are people who want to spend time traveling in Europe.  I'm not against that (and I hope to get to Ireland as part of the Year of Jim), but I live in the greatest country in the history of the world and I haven't seen most of it yet.  I want to see everything that this country has to offer.  I've been to 21 states so far and I want to get to all 50.  It won't happen in one year, but hopefully I can make a little bit of a dent into achieving that.  My other goal is to get to every Major League Baseball Stadium.  There are a couple of exceptions to that goal.  I'm not opposed to going to a game in Tampa or Oakland, but I don't need to see those stadiums.  I've been to eight current stadiums plus Shea Stadium and the old Yankee Stadium.  I will be adding a few more this season.


So here's what's definitely happening in the YoJ:
1.  Miami- a quick weekend there with my friend Andy for a Marlins game.
2.  Baltimore- an Orioles game (Camden Yards is the closest stadium that I haven't been to yet) with my brothers, Tom and Sean.
3.  Pittsburgh- a Pirates game with my college friend Jon and hopefully Kyle as well.
4.  Phoenix- a weekend trip for a Diamondbacks game, also my first trip to Arizona.


That's four stadiums that I can cross off the list.  There might be more before the season is over.  I would love to do a road trip that involved games in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Detroit.


And here are a few other possibilities:
1.  Ireland- Notre Dame-Navy on Labor Day weekend.  I have to figure out if I'm doing this.  I certainly hope so.
2.  Big East Basketball Tournament- as in every game of the tournament.  I went one night this year with my friend Vin and another night with my dad.  I was upset that I couldn't go to all the other sessions.
3.  2013 Opening Day- I've never been to an Opening Day baseball game.  If I don't have a job, I definitely want to make this happen.


If you have any other suggestions for me or want to get in on any of this, let me know.


My next post will probably be soon after my trip to Miami this weekend with my thoughts on Marlins Park.