Major League Baseball Opening Day

[Cynical Ninja]

I used to play Rugby, I have the aches and pains to prove it.

You enter into a game of Rugby knowing that at some point a man probably a lot bigger and heavier than you is going to be stamping on your face and genitals with his studs.

My husband played for years (and yeah, he's got the aches and pains and a nose that isn't quite straight to prove it). I liked watching him play. It's really hard to watch my son. He got hit hard enough a few weeks ago to knock the wind out of him and leave him with a wicked sore neck (he got folded up in the tackle). He's one of the smallest kids on the team too. *sigh* Family tradition though. My FIL played for UCLA, husband played for 20+ years blah blah.

My son's a skater too (I have a half-pipe and rail in my garage to prove that). I told him that someone I "knew" online was a professional skater from the U.K. He immediately threw out a name (Jeff something, I think) and I had to break it to him that I didn't think you were still skating professionally. My son wants to get "sponsored" although we haven't made much effort in that regard yet.

Well, that was quite the fucking novel. Anything to avoid laundry and errands.

Ah your son is a skater!

What kind of skater is he?, I was a mini ramp and transitional skater.

I used to play rugby at a local club level, until one day I had an epiphany and decided I was getting sick of waking up the next morning unable to walk or stand up straight. It started to interfere with my skateboarding as well.

There might be some stuff online about my skating, I didn't skate under my real name, I will have a look later. I skated before the internet was popular.

[username]

I'm enjoying hijacking this thread...who gives a fuck about baseball anyway.

I asked my son today what type of skater he considers himself and he said "street", the other type being "vert". I had to google the terms. I'm kind of surprised he said that because he goes to a local skatepark pretty much every day that the weather cooperates (thank God we have one about 15 minutes away) but I suppose he knows. I need to get him involved in a skate club so he can maybe get some professional instruction (since he loves it so much). This is him in our garage. I ought to beat his ass for not having his helmet on in this pic (my husband too because I imagine he's the one who took the photo). Constant battle.

[Lady Cop]

Fenway's 100^th



Baseball's newest venue is officially open, and it's impossible to look at Marlins Park in Miami without thinking, That place looks like fun. The fish swimming in the backstop, the Jacques-Cousteau-meets-Timothy-Leary home run sculpture, the South Beach nightclub satellite behind the bullpen, the pop art installations scattered on the courses: Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria isn't kidding when he says the ballpark he helped conceive and build "is meant to make you smile." Loria spent enough on free agents this winter to sound believable when he says he wants fans to focus on the game and the team. But, just in case your mind wanders, he made sure that baseball is not the only entertainment option at Marlins Park.

Baseball's oldest venue is about to open for its 100^th anniversary season, and it's easy to look at Fenway Park and think, What's so fun about that place? At first glance, there's little at Fenway to make the casual visitor smile. It's not easy to find in the labyrinth Boston calls a city plan. If you manage to get there by car, it's nearly impossible to park. If you tune in for the Red Sox' April 13 home opener, you'll see fans bundled up like it's a playoff game at Lambeau Field. They'll be crammed into seats made for 1912-sized derrieres, and most of their heads will be twisted at 70-degree angles to glimpse home plate. Anyone looking for fish will have to flip over to Wicked Tuna.

The first game at Fenway, on April 20, 1912, set the tone for the next 100 years: The Red Sox didn't even hold an opening ceremony -- "the real-down-to-the-book official dedication with the music stuff, the flowers and the flags," as the Boston Globe wrote then -- until May 17. The implicit message from the new Fenway to its fans: This is a baseball park. You are here to watch baseball.

Fenway has been dressed up over the years, particularly in the decade since John Henry and friends bought the Red Sox and committed to staying in the old yard rather than building a replacement. There are seats above the Green Monster, a bar on the right field roof, a food court beneath the bleachers. But the creature comforts still lag behind what can be found at the wave of mallparks that have sprung up around the majors over the last two decades. Forget aquariums and swimming pools and steakhouses. The main attraction at Fenway is the same as it was the day it opened: baseball.

In 2012, that simplicity, that purity of purpose, is as much of a novelty on the major league landscape as Loria's psychedelic sculpture. As much as the famous proximity of its seats to the field, it's what makes Fenway baseball's most intimate ballpark, and what connects fans there to the sport in a way that isn't possible anyplace else. In some ways, the experience of taking in a game at Fenway mirrors the experience of playing there. Fans who navigate narrow concourses to get to seats with too little legroom are watching players who dress in a cramped clubhouse, work out in a tiny (by big-league standards) weight room and are bedeviled by the strange hops and caroms created by the field's many nooks and crannies. Playing baseball is difficult, and requires a special commitment. At Fenway, the same goes for watching it.

Over the next six months we'll hear a century's worth of hosannas to Fenway Park, but the place hasn't always been beloved. Over the years pitchers fed up with its cozy dimensions and players and managers frustrated with its substandard facilities have taking turns suggesting that it be burned down (Sparky Anderson's choice) or blown up (Mo Vaughn, David Wells, John Lackey). Until the current ownership group spruced up the place with a series of renovations, there were strident calls from Boston fans and media for a new stadium to be built.

And yet, Fenway endured and now, on its 100^th birthday, it thrives, a shrine to the game and to a simpler sports era. Ballpark fads come and go. Fenway has outlasted concrete contemporaries like Tigers Stadium and the original Yankee Stadium. It has surpassed the life spans of domed wonders of the earth and cookie-cutter, multipurpose ovals. And its allure will hold strong long after the novelty of retro chic and rightfield shopping districts and in-house marine life fades. For 100 years, the joy of Fenway has been the unadorned, uncomplicated joy of the game itself -- a joy that connects us to the thread of history like little else. Over the next few weeks, as 30 major league parks open for another season, cries of "Play ball!" will ring out in parks across the country. The message will be at its purest in Fenway.


tonight on PBS:

Inside Fenway Park: An Icon at 100

The centennial of the oldest and smallest MLB ballpark in the U.S. is celebrated. Highlights of park uses include soldier masses during WWI, a 1918 Irish Republican rally, FDR's last campaign speech, and a variety of concerts.

[Midwest Spy]

Still on my Bucket List:

A game at Fenway Park.

100 years old today. Should be great. Game is on MLB TV for those who'd like to tune in. Yanks in town. 3:00pm EDT??

On a side note, my Twins just wrapped up a 4 game series in NY and actually split the series. Monday, the BoSox head to Minny and I'm going to the Wednesday night game.

[Ma Huang Sor]

opening day at Fenway is a HUGE deal and celebration up here~

YES! A Boston fan! I can't tell you how many Sundays I took the trolley down from Comm Ave in Brighton to Kenmore Square to get to Fenway. I was in the bleachers in '67 when Rico Petrocelli caught the ball that won the pennant for the first time in years.

I went down there a couple years ago for a Blue Jays game, but haven't been to Fenway since. Still the best old ballpark of all.

[Riotgear]

I'm enjoying hijacking this thread...who gives a fuck about baseball anyway.

Finally someone with some goddamn sense in their head.

I'm really starting to like you username.

NO NOT LIKE THAT FFS.

[IMaDick]

I'm enjoying hijacking this thread...who gives a fuck about baseball anyway.

Finally someone with some goddamn sense in their head.

I'm really starting to like you username.

NO NOT LIKE THAT FFS.

I like her the other way.

[username]

I like her the other way.

You're just mesmerized by my knobby, baseball-like, knees.

[Duchess]

Funny girl

[Duchess]

Woman! I meant woman!

[Midwest Spy]

This is the unofficial start of spring/summer for many as another MLB season kicks off today.

My Twins are hosting Detroit this afternoon, and the game-time temp is supposed to be 34F with a a wind-chill in the mid-20's. Sounds like so much fun.

BTW, we have another 90+ loss season on-tap.

[Duchess]

I'm not a fan but I checked to see who Baltimore is playing & it looks like they are still in Florida. Too bad, it's a beautiful Spring day on the East Coast.

[Midwest Spy]

^^^ I hope the O's have another good year. Boston and New York will have difficulty winning the AL East this year. Toronto, Baltimore & Tampa have a great chance to win the division.

[BlueTiki]

This is the unofficial start of spring/summer for many as another MLB season kicks off today.

The DBacks host St. Louis, this evening.

88 degrees.

In 2001, the Cards were the Opening Day visitors and they beat the Diamond Backs, handily.

2001 was also the year the DBacks took the pennant.

Who knows?

[Jimbone]

I'm not a fan but I checked to see who Baltimore is playing & it looks like they are still in Florida. Too bad, it's a beautiful Spring day on the East Coast.

Waaaay back when, I lived two blocks from Camden Yards right after it opened... back when Cal was king... and I gave a shit about baseball.

Had many great nights watching ballgames in that stadium.

[Midwest Spy]

This is the unofficial start of spring/summer for many as another MLB season kicks off today.

The DBacks host St. Louis, this evening.

88 degrees.

In 2001, the Cards were the Opening Day visitors and they beat the Diamond Backs, handily.

2001 was also the year the DBacks took the pennant.

Who knows?

Tiki, I admire your attention to detail.

Not many women would remember something like that about baseball.

Very impressive.

[Duchess]

Not many women would remember something like that about baseball.

Tiki is Mock's national treasure, I've said that before. She's knowledgeable about everything she discusses, just like Hot D is. I'm the opposite, I tend to jump in & then regret my instant remarks because I don't know what I'm talking about.

[BlueTiki]

Not many women would remember something like that about baseball.

Very impressive.

You're too kind.

Truth is, a very dear friend (female) is and has been part of the DBack organization and was presented one of the championship rings.

I'll snap a picture of it and when I do, I'll post it.

Two Spring Training venues (Giants, Rockies and DBacks) are within a twenty minute bicycle ride from my house.

I've always enjoyed baseball.

Like great sex, it's a game of anticipation.

And with no time limit.

Sliding, extra innings, stolen bases . . . batter up!

[BlueTiki]

Hey, Spy!

How 'bout last night's DBacks' game? 5 ¹⁄₂ hours!

I coulda run a marathon, watched 60 Minutes and cooked dinner with that amount of time.

16 innings.

[Jimbone]

It must be the adolescent in me, but I hear and read DBack's as Dbag's.

Every single time, and it makes me laugh.