Opening It Up

This weekend fetured some pretty mild weather in the Big Apple, meaning, as the night follows the day, that I was due to get sick. After spending about 38 of my 48 weekend hours sleeping, my eyes fluttered open just in time to catch Opening Night, Indians at White Sox. A few thoughts:

I'm not a big fan of Opening Night (as opposed to Opening Day), as it is, but if you're going to insist on it, do something smart. For example, make the night opener a West Coast affair, or put it somewhere south, where there is some hope of good weather. Tonight's opener was delayed by rain, and looked pretty cold, to boot. Sure, those fans that stuck around looked like they were real diehards, but they also looked like they might require hospitalization on Monday morning.

Good introductions. America, Brian Anderson. Brian, this is America. Brian's the guy that made Aaron Rowand expendable, in a move which ultimately netted the Sox Jim Thome. Brian went 2-3 with a walk, a double, and two RBI in the White Sox 10-4 win. It's a nice way to say hello.

During the rain delay, La Chiquita and I found ourselves getting sucked in to AMC's presentation of the Godfather. It was quite a reminder of how powerful this film is, that after just about every scene, La Chiquita would gush "What a great scene!"

It's like, "Yeah, it's the Godfather."

What strikes me are the little flaws in the movie. At one point in the iconic scene where James Caan is beating on Carlo Rizzo, there's an obviously missed punch--the camera's at such an angle that the only way that the actors could have maintained the illusion would have been by Caan actually giving the actor playing Rizzo a shiner. I like the fact that that stayed in, that through a number of director's cuts and special editions, Francis Ford Coppola never went back to take that error off the books.

(I wish all edits could be so kind. Watching the Godfather with commercials, and edited for TV, was pretty weird. The strangest part of the edit was overdubs not only for truly salty language, but for the word "banging" and sicilian cursewords. That's extra effort in censorship!)

Most anticipated first pitch of tomorrow's openers will come in the bottom of the first, with Cris Carpenter dealing to Jimmy Rollins. Rollins hit in 36 consecutive games last season, a streak which he hopes to continue for at least 20 more games to reach Joe Dimaggio's record. While I don't think Rollins will take down the Yankee Clipper, I'd be more than happy to see Rollins hit in nine more, erasing Pete Rose's NL record.

Season predictions, Blink-style--virtually no forethought has been put into this:

AL EAST

Yankees
Red Sox
Orioles
Blue Jays
Devil Rays

AL CENTRAL

White Sox
Twins (WC)
Indians
Tigers
Royals

AL WEST

A's
Angels
Rangers
Mariners

AL Cy Young: J. Santana
AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez
AL Rookie: Brian Anderson

NL EAST

Braves
Phillies (WC)
Mets
Nats
Marlins

NL CENTRAL

Cardinals
Brewers
Cubs
Pirates
Astros
Reds

NL WEST

Dodgers
Padres
Giants
Diamondbacks
Rockies

NL Cy Young: Roy Oswalt
NL MVP: Albert Pujols
NL Rookie: Ryan Zimmerman