GAME ON!

I am quite drained from the emotional roller coaster of the Ric Flair retirement yesterday but not enough to not be extremely psyched for Opening Day today. Of course, some would argue it's not really Opening Day since the Sox and A's opened the season in Japan last week. Or some might argue that since the first stateside game was last night, this is just another day in the season.

To me, the first day the Dodgers play is always Opening Day. And there's just nothing quite like opening the season at home.

I love going to Opening Day. The stadium always looks so beautiful on that first day - like an old friend you haven't seen in six months. You can smell the fresh cut grass when you walk in. Your neck cranes from left to right to pick up those little [or major] changes made over the off-season. The people are excited - there's the "audacity of hope" in the air that you are about to start a World Championship season. I've always imagined that feeling being echoed in ballparks all over the United States on Opening Day - even in places like Kansas City and Tampa Bay where their chances are slim and none with slim scheduled to be contracted along with Minnesota - but that the hope is there nonetheless. For at least just that one day, they can imagine their team in the World Series battling for the championship.

And the Dodger Dogs, oh my god, the Dodger Dogs. You can smell them from a mile away... as soon as you get parked and cast your first glance on Blue Heaven On Earth, you can seemingly smell the greatest hot dog in professional sports. It's not a "Friar Frank"... it's not a "Halo Dog"... it's not a... hey, in Oakland, do they call their hot dog "A Dog?" It's the Dodger Dog. The hot dog that the Good Lord Almighty himself [if you believe in Moses bringing down the Ten Commandments, you know, the actual stone tables and smashing them into dust... if you believe in that sort of thing] reached down from the heavens and deposited into the grandest cathedral in all of baseball.

I'm heading out the door [sadly not to the game] shortly so before I go... a quick [maybe] story of my favorite Opening Day...

The year was 2005. And we had decided to buy a Dodgers "mini-plan" of tickets that would give us 4 tickets to games throughout the season... including Opening Day. The audacity of hope was in the air that season, having just battled into the playoffs the season prior.

The drama starts days before the game as two of the people scheduled to attend the game with us, two of Mrs. Blue's siblings [names withheld to protect the innocent... AND THE GUILTY!], announce they may be unable to attend. They ask us to find replacements for them. Mrs. Blue fills one slot with another sibling and I offer the final to Poff Daddy. He agrees and we're set.

The night before the game, Poff Daddy pulls what is known in circles as "The Poff Flake." He starts with a wishy-washy excuse... something about traffic is possible. Then the excuses get more bizarre... he starts accusing the Dodgers of not being worth driving that far to see because... well, Paul LoDuca had been traded among others. Eventually, it turns into, "I'm not that much of a baseball fan anyways. Give it to someone else." With literally less than 24 hours til game time, we give up and just assume that ticket will be wasted.

The next morning we get off to a late start driving to the game because... well, because it's Mrs. Blue and her sister which automatically means we'll be late to anything. Traffic is predictably snaggled which makes for a slow-go and I start getting a little nervous. As someone who can't stand missing the previews at the movies, the idea of missing the opening ceremonies on Opening Day has me nearly pulling my hair out. At some point, I turn the radio on so I can at least hear the awards being given out.

We're getting closer, battling the Los Angeles traffic, as the game ticks closer as well. We emerge into the Dodger Stadium parking lot with just minutes before game time - ordinarily a fairly easy task but on this particular Opening Day, there was absolutely not a single parking space to be found. While scouring two filled lots, the Dodgers fall behind early with starter Derek Lowe giving up a home run and putting the Dodgers down 5-0 before they even come to the plate. Ultimately, I end up parking in a place that's basically an empty space between two lots. I am assured by a random parking attendant that I won't get towed. I cross my fingers and head for the turnstiles.

By the time we reach our seats, I'm quite grumbly. I'm bitching about the fact that I took the day off work for this and that I can't even get to my seats before the fourth inning. The top of the 4th arrives, I sit down in my seat with my Dodger Dog that I really can't even enjoy. The Dodgers are down... not huge but enough that I'm pissed off and there's no changing that.

They rally here and there, chipping away but coming up short. I'm disgusted by the team, I'm disgusted by the day - at this point I just want to go home and wallow in my misery. I'm so annoyed that when Mrs. Blue's brother arrives at the stadium to claim the final seat, I actually volunteer to go up and give him the ticket so I don't have to watch the game.

By the time we reach the bottom of the ninth and the place has thinned out greatly, the score is 8-5... not insurmountable but for a team with notoriously questionable offense, it's not looking good and I'm still in a pretty foul mood. The Giants bring in Armando Benitez and my mood is not improving.

But they kept chipping away and soon, Milton Bradley came to the plate with a 8-7 score and a mentally drained home crowd finding a little life in their hearts to try and root the much-maligned Bradley on.

A shot to left field seems to be a single that'll tie the game...

...and it shoots right under the left fielder's glove, allowing one more run to come home and putting the Dodgers in first place with a score of 9-8. The players were thrilled, Bradley being mobbed by the team. The fans were jumping up and down all over the stadium, hugging and high-fiving random strangers like we had just won the division... not the championship mind you, the division. I can't even imagine what people will do to strangers the day that World Championship returns to Dodger Stadium...

...but hopefully I'll have an answer to that in six months.

It was one of my favorite days in Dodger Stadium in all the years I've been going there and in the end, it proves the moral of my story.

On Opening Day, everyone can... and should... have the audacity of hope.

Play ball.