and we are currently tied for the division lead too, which is good. Nice to see Zambrano and Lilly producing, now hopefully Dempster can rebound from his last start. I’m excited about Marshall’s start though..

Are out of their minds. He is still a vacuum out there at first, and he’ll still put up some respectable offensive numbers (albeit not 2005 numbers). Now moving him down in the line-up is a different story…

looked like he had amazing command even with the crappy weather. I am being happily proven wrong about D. Lee and Kosuke not playing up to the potential. Hope D. Lee can keep up his strong April and continue it through the season

Derrek lee with a nice 2-3 performence.
Kevin Gregg with a scoreless outing, but no save.
Bradley only out for 3 games
Geo back wednesday
Any update on Rammy?

crappy! I’ve been there when it’s been cold but probably not like today. Let’s wait for a month or so to challenge dropping guys in the order, dumping them, trading them or DFA’ing them.

Soriano’s jack to start off the season
Fukudome’s monster game
Soriano’s HR in the 9th to win a game we had no business winning
RJ’s spectacular catch
Lilly’s near no hit bid

9-0 after three innings.

Good.

It is tough to win a ballgame without one of your most dangerous hitters in the lineup. It is hard to win a game without two of them in your lineup it is damn near impossible to win three of them out of the lineup. i like this team a lot. I really like Reed Johnson and I think Ruff Ryder Lilly is one of the most under-rated signings. He is won what 34 ball games over the past two + years. Just wow. I am really impressed with this team.

The bullpen still makes me nervous. I dont think lou ttrusts Greg. But kerry struggeled early last year also. Dont forget that.

but Daniel Cabrera of the Nationals struck out today in his one and only At Bat. He is now in his career 0-17 17 K. My roomate who i s an orioles fan claims that he has only seen him make contact once. This could be an epic streak folks

Does that make the ticket windows out by the marquee pointless on gameday? Do we go to those booths for standing room only tickets. Oh and this is for everyone: How much are SRO tickets now? I used to do it all the time but then I started actually getting seats. That limits my choices of marquee games. For some reason I remember them being 12-15 bucks a couple years ago. I haven’t done it in awhile however.

Oh…and go Cubs.

1. Why the game didn’t start at the scheduled 1:20 time…having sat down in my seat at about 12:45, the weather wasn’t any worse then than it was at 2:30. At a few points after 3, during the early innings, it seemed to be raining harder than it had been before the game started. Maybe they were waiting to see a forecast or something but saving us an hour of sitting in that crap would’ve been nice.

2. Why they persisted with the player introduction ceremony. Yes, it’s opening day, baseball’s equivalent of a wedding reception, but in light of the weather, I wish they’d just gotten down to business. Clapping for Rockies coach Glenallen Hill was nice, but the pleasure was outweighed by the pain from my freezing feet (forgot to wear two pair of socks).

It didn’t help that it was an interminable game. Jimenez went 3-2 on every hitter…he’d thrown over 90 pitches before getting an out in the fourth, despite having only given up a single run. He would work very quickly with no runners on base but then slow down to crawl when a runner reached. The people sitting around me were discussing whether or not Steve Trachsel would’ve worked quicker…not a big deal in mid-July but in today’s weather, it was awful. On top of that, despite pitching well, Lilly worked a lot of deep counts too.

I liked the 7th inning stretch today. Did they skip God Bless America? I thought they sang it @ all parks on Opening Day.

Also, Sutcliffe seemed stone cold sober today. I thought for sure he’d have a few beers in him by the stretch

and today’s near no-hitter that he’s due for the real deal before the end of this season.

This is Lou’s 3rd year with the Cubs and each year he’s had a different closer each year.

2007 Ryan Dempster who looked shaky to start the year. Key point, Ryan was walking guys, struggling with his command in the 2nd game of the year and Lou went to the mound and yelled at him to throw strikes. Demp straightened things out and the team won the division.

2008 Kerry Wood hit the first batter he faced and gave up the lead in a tie game on opening day. Woody struggled with his command early on but straightened things out and the team won the division (and had the best record in the NL).

2009 Kevin Gregg struggled with his command early in the season. How will the season end? I’d bet Gregg will get things straightened out and have a successful season.

Call me goofy but I didn’t find it horrible today. Not great but not all that horrible either. Of course I was wearing 112 layers and had a full winter outerwear compliment of hat, scarf and gloves.

… and first HR at Citi Field was hit by former Cub and current Padre Jody Gerut. He led off the first inning with a HR.

It was cold and it was wet but it was not that windy. I was screwed because my shoes were soaked and that got my socks wet but I got extra socks put them on an then tied little plastic bags over my feet before I put them back in the shoes so my feet would stay dry. I admit by the 7th my toes were REALLY cold still it was a great game.

Re the intros, Marquis should have been cheered not booed and I am sorry to say that Rusch was also booed. I did love the fact that the loudest intro cheers did not go to Sori, A-Ram etc but to Reed Johnson.

I believe there will ACTUALLY BE SUN by the game Thursday but not sure I remember what it looks like.

As you may know, it’s not all that uncommon to sometime see players in full uniform cut across the concourse between the clubhouse and the dugout. So before the game started, my wife was in the concourse area right outside the gift shop when all of sudden, she sees Ryan Dempster walk by.

He stops, pokes his head into the gift shop – which obviously was quite crowded – and tells everyone “Make sure you buy up all those Ryan Dempster jerseys” and then continues on his way.

Second best quote of the day (I’m still laughing over Lou’s “you can’t forecast the weather”…)

I want the Cubs best hitter in the 3 hole, that is A-Ram. It isn’t what Lee hasn’t done with the bat, but it is what Ramirez can do, especially with those extra ab’s.

Felt like God was testing my Cubs faith yesterday. Lilly’s performance definitely made it a lot eaiser to stay. I was really happy when we got the 27th out, but I couldn’t get back on the red line quick enough.

…was watching Lou’s mound visit with Fully K in the eighth inning. If you ask me, Heilman got off easy – Lou didn’t read him the riot act the way he did Dempster in early ‘07. (Anyone else remember this? The temperature was about the same, though the location different.) Nonetheless, it was pretty clear Lou wasn’t reciting a Hallmark card from memory. Good thing Fully K got the results Lou was looking for…eventually.

Guzman’s one inning batter got off to a rough start, too, but he recovered nicely. The Cubs bullpen – like most (all?) bullpens this time of year – is a work in progress. But I see plenty of reason for hope.