Baltimore Orioles Opening Day; O’s vs. Yankees, April 6th, 2008
The 2009 Opening Day for the Baltimore Orioles was one to remember as the bats came alive, and the rumors of Jeremy Guthrie’s demise were unfounded as they defeated the New York Yankees, 10-5. Newest Oriole Cesar Izturis capped off the day by depositing a pitch for a two-run homer in the eighth inning and the Orioles added two more runs to put the game away for good. Interestingly enough, Cesar’s homer was close to being an interference — as it looked that Johnny Damon (left fielder for the Yankees) perhaps may have had a fan make his job difficult — but we’ll take it.
Baltimore ace, Jeremy Guthrie — was not great, but Lord did he look better than he ever did in March — as he went six innings and gave up three runs. Aubrey Huff drove in three runs, Adam Jones and Nick Markakis drove in two runs each to help the Orioles. The bullpen nearly coughed up the game as Chris Ray gave up a two-run homer to Hideki Matsui, but they kept things in order.
Oh, and the Yankees. Well, two of the high priced acquisitions, C.C. Sabathia and Mark Teixiera had debuts they would rather forget (I’ll be interested to see what the New York papers say in the morning). Sabathia gave up six runs and eight hits in 4 1-3 innings to take the loss; meanwhile, Teixiera, with his huge 8-year, $180 million deal could not buy a hit as he went 0-for-4 and was given the royal welcome by Baltimore fans by literally being booed out of the stadium for choosing the Yankees over the Orioles — his so-called hometown team.
Finally, Opening Day did not turn into Yankee Stadium South as we all feared. Although there was quite a contingent of Yankee fans, Baltimore fans came out and represented — I’d say the ratio of Orioles vs. Yankees fans was 65-35 — therefore, for first time in years, the park was filled with orange and black with the Bombers in town. The park was not taken over by boisterous Yankee fans, but instead, we held our own, supported the team, and a good portion of us stuck around until the last out.
Some other things I noticed on Monday:
- The sheer amount of fans with the Baltimore road jerseys on. Although many fans were angry for years because ‘Baltimore’ was not on the road uniforms — now rightfully correted, I literally saw hundreds of people with them on (replica and authentic) which was extremely cool to see as a longtime fan.
- Baltimore fans were really, really into the game and it’s something I had not seen in a long, long time in these parts.
- There are now a good number of flat-panel LCD TV’s around the concourse that have replaced the ugly, sometimes distorted tube TV’s that must have been there for at least a decade. Saw a few of them around, but it’s good to see that the team is upgrading things around the park.
- The lines were long — real long — and very slow for concessions. I didn’t even bother to eat until much, much later in the game. To add, the team store was also incredibly packed, so one must assume it did brisk business. I looked at the difference between the replica and authentic jerseys because I was thinking of getting my brother one — there’s a stark difference in the quality, and the replicas do not have the patches on them, like the authentic jerseys do. If you have the money, save it and get an authentic road or home jersey.
- The sound system sounds great, and the acoustics are much improved around the park.
- The Yankees got roasted in the pre-game ceremony by Orioles fans — bad. Derek Jeter, Joe Girardi, and Jorge Posada got some heat; however, it was nothing compared to the absolute disdain that Baltimore fans had for Mark Teixiera (perhaps some of the worst booing I have heard towards someone).
- For the Orioles: Koji Uehara, George Sherrill got some nice love from the crowd, although it seemed like Dave Trembley, Brian Roberts and Nick Markakis got a heroes welcome on Monday.
- Vice President Joe Boden threw out the first pitch on Monday, and while President Obama may be popular — Biden got his share of cheers and boos.
