Yankees Opening Day 2010

It's been a busy week for the TBB. We "watched" the Yankees home opener on Tuesday, we saw Rock of Ages last night, and Sister has finally gone into labor! We know. You're practically breathless from the excitement, but easy, tigers. It's time for our poll results. Serena has asked who you'd throw for Opening Day and 8 folks voiced their opinion. The winner with 3 votes is "Tiny" Tim Lincecum and who could really blame you for choosing him? Second place is a tie going to Roy Halladay and Andy Pettite, each earning 2 votes. Only 1 sad individual voted for Johan Santana, which is a bit perplexing to us. Really? Only 1 person felt he was qualified to pitch Opening Day? No one voted for Zack Greinke (but we're thinking this might be because he plays for the Royals, a low media-exposed team), Kevin Costner (You really don't think his performance in For the Love of the Game is enough experience?), or Brother (we'll have you know that Brother is VERY athletic, thank you!).

Neither of us had tickets to the Yankees home opener, so we were forced to watch the game from our desks via ESPN Gamecast:

The pitching matchup was Andy Pettitte/Ervin Santana. Pettitte was kick ass, throwing 100 pitches over 6 innings, giving up 5 hits, 0 runs, 3 walks, and striking out 6. Santana did not have the same success. He threw 113 innings over 5.2 innings, allowing 8 hits, 5 walks, and two home runs (1 solo shot by Nick Johnson in the first and another solo shot by Derek Jeter in the 4th). He did manage to strike out 7, but also had the misfortune of being the victim of 5 errors committed by his defense! Good grief.

Thankfully, the YES Network broadcasted an "encore performance" of the game, so that Serena was able to rush home from the gym to watch the pre-game ceremonies. *sigh* She got home just in time for Hideki Matsui, wearing his Angels uniform, to receive his World Series ring. The crowd gave him a standing ovation. After receiving his ring, his former teammates converged around him, embracing him in an adorable and writhing puppy pile! He seemed shock by the love displayed for him.

Another former Yankees to receive a warm welcome was Bobby Abreu during the starting lineups, but nowhere to the extent of Matsui. Serena was in heaven when her man, Bernie Williams, came out to throw the first pitch. Yeah. She teared up a little. She's a loser.

In typical Yankees fashion, the buulpen chose to give us a heart attack. With a 7-1 lead in the top of the 9th (should be a guaranteed W, dontcha think?), Dave Robertson loaded the bases for Abreu. Abreu teed off, hitting a grand slam and making the score 7-5. Seriously, kid?! You had a 6 run lead in the damn 9th inning! Are you an a-hole? Girardi would have to call on Mariano Rivera to close out the game, which is absolutely ludicrous.

We mentioned earlier that we saw Rock of Ages at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on West 47th Street last night. If you're ever in the New York area and have a taste for tacky 80's glam rock, then you MUST see this play. It's fantastic. The narrator, Lonny, with his magical mullet and "Hooray for Boobies" and "Camel Toe" t-shirts is Serena's best friend, even though she hasn't met him yet. The stars are aligned and it's only a matter of time before they can be together (heaven isn't too far away, closer to it everyday...). In the meantime, we shall have to settle for making him the TBB Super Hero of the Week.

This week's baseball notes: On Monday, the Twins christened their brand new stadium, Target Field, by defeating the Red Sox! Carl Pavano got the stadiums first win (will wonders never cease to amaze us?) and Jon Lester took the loss. Lester struggled a bit. Of 107 pitches, only 59 were strikes. He gave up 4 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks. Jason Kubel will go down in the books as the first to homer at Target Field. On Tuesday night against the Mariners, A's pitcher Brad Ziegler showed another side to himself. In the 7th, he entered the game in relief for Brett Anderson, who had pitched a gem, striking out 6 in 6 scoreless innings. From the beginning, it was clear the Ziegler was suffering from command issues. Thanks to an amazing defensive play by catcher, Kurt Suzuki, he was able to exit the inning unscathed. He would not be so lucky in the 8th when he gave up a 3-run homer to the struggling Milton Bradley to break the 0-0 tie. Perhaps Ziegler was distracted by something and unable to focus on the game? Hmmm...On the flip side, the Mariners' Doug Fister lasted 8 innings, striking out 4 and allowing only 4 hits. 21-year old Matthew Clemmens of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, is facing charges for intentionally vomitting on an 11-year old girl and her father during Wednesday night's Phillies-Nationals game. How disgusting is that? Ugh! Police say that Clemmens made himself puke by putting his finger down his throat after his companion was kicked out for unruly behavior. Where do people come up with this crap?! Revolting! Mr. Clemmens, you will never get laid with that kind of personality! In injury news, Jimmy Rollins is expected to be out 2-4 weeks with a mild-moderate strained right calf. Jacoby Ellsbury bruised his left ribs in a collision with thirdbaseman Adrian Beltre on Sunday in Kansas City and is still reporting soreness and some trouble breathing. Ouch! On Wednesday, Terry Francona announced that Ellsbury probably wouldn't return to the lineup until Friday. We shall see how Ellsbury's holding up once game time rolls around tonight, won't we?

Be sure to check out our post regarding the Fathead Sweepstakes for the month of April!