We made it! It's Opening Day.

You've already read all you need to, I'm sure, about the "100 years" thing... so you won't be hearing any more of it from me. In fact, the most important thing about this afternoon is the weather forecast:

Today: Occasional rain and thunderstorms before 1pm, then periods of rain and possibly a thunderstorm after 1pm. Areas of fog before 1pm. High near 58. Breezy, with a east wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south between 15 and 20 mph. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%.

The latest I've heard is that an area of rain will come through in the early afternoon, possibly delaying the start of the game -- but then there will be a window in which they should be able to get the game in.

Bruce Miles sums up the NL Central Division in his weekend column.

This game thread is a little different from the game threads posted under the old SBN format. Later on, you're supposed to see a link to "Milwaukee @ Chicago" at the top of this post. There's a live linescore that will pop up and automatically update when the game starts, and I think there will be other links, as well, including to the lineups and starting pitchers. In the meantime, here are the starters for today:

Today's Starting Pitchers

C. Zambrano Cubs vs.  B. Sheets Brewers 18-13 W-L 9-7 3.95 ERA 3.87 177 SO 128 101 BB 25 23 HR 20 vs. Mil -- vs. Cubs

Stats are 2007 season stats

Opening Day Starting Lineups
Cubs	Brewers
Theriot, ss	Weeks, 2b
Soriano, lf	Gwynn, cf
Lee, 1b	Fielder, 1b
Ramirez, 3b	Braun, lf
Fukudome, rf	Hart, rf
DeRosa, 2b	Hall, 3b
Soto, c	Hardy, ss
Pie, cf	Sheets, p
Zambrano, p	Kendall, c

Yes, that's right -- according to the Brewers website, Ned Yost is going to hit Ben Sheets 8th and Jason Kendall 9th. This never worked when Tony LaRussa did it, so I don't expect it'll be a big deal for the Brewers, either.

Batter/pitcher matchups: Derrek Lee has hit 5 HR in 44 AB vs. Sheets, and Z himself is 5-for-12. Prince Fielder is .381/.500/.714 against Z, with 4 doubles and a HR in 21 AB. Jason Kendall is 9-for-26 (.346), all singles. Z has handled Bill Hall well -- 5-for-33 (.152) with 16 strikeouts.

You can see the game on ESPN2 if WGN-TV is not available in your area. (The ESPN2 feed will be blacked out in Chicago.) It's on radio, and on XM, and at the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2008 version - this link has pitcher stats and splits up)

Discuss amongst yourselves.