Opening Day 2003

4:11 Strike one to Kenny Lofton

4:12 Reds announcers (ol ESPN stalwart George Grande & either Chris Welsh) mention how the Bucs were a different team this Spring after Lofton signed. Lofton grounds out 3-1.

4:13 Kendall looks like vintage Kendall…of the past two years…weak 6-3 grounder

Great American looks nice with deep grass like PNC. Gile pops up on the first pitch. Disappointing top of the first, Haynes couldn’t have done it any better, only Lofton made him work a bit.

Happened to catch some of the Mets/Cubs game earlier. Roger Cedeno is as bad in CF as anyone I’ve ever seen and Floyd and Burnitz will not run down any balls to help him out. 15-2 Cubs the last I saw, its great to hear the NY fans booing on Opening Day. Not quite as bad as the 95 opener in Pittsburgh after the strike when fans pelted the field with plastic flags towards the end of a typically minor league performance by the Bucs.

4:17 Benson gets Larkin to fly out to Reggie Sanders in right for the first out of the season.

4:20 Griffey gets the first hit of the season and the first hit ever in the new Reds park. It’s a double and though healthy, he runs easily but not quickly, does he fear the hammy?

4:25 Whoa ARam!! Ugly swing looked like he was swinging under water. K.

4:26 Simon Strikes!! Double up the alley…Whoa! Barely makes it into second sliding. Big guy Simon is.

4:29 Sanders go boom!!!!!!!!!!! Deep drive to left center on a 3-2 low fastball. 2-0 Bucs. Former Red Sanders gets the first HR in the new park.

The Reds ruined the Bucs opening of PNC Park, it would be nice to see the Bucs return the favor.

Pokey singles – run pokey run!!

Why are the Reds favorites to do anything this year? Jimmy Haynes as Opening Day starter is almost as bad as Ron Villone lat year. OK, Haynes won 15 last year, but he is not an anchor of a playoff team.

4:37 Lofton goes deep in the second. It’s now 5-0 and the Cincy fans are trying to coerce the fan who caught Lofton’s ball to throw it back on the field. Sorry, Great American Park isn’t Wrigley.

4:40 OK, thanks to the combination of bad pitching by Haynes and a park as big as Kate Moss's chest, both Lofton and Jason Kendall have hit HRs. Lofton didn’t think his was gone and Kendall’s was to the opposite field. I don’t know how that happened, he doesn’t have that much power and didn’t do that at all last year. This park is going to give up lots of HRs if this is any indication. It’s not even warm yet.

Frustrated fans on Opening Day ar great huh? All the optimism of Spring has transformed into an ugly mob scene, not earlier in New York but also now in Cincy. Fans forced another fan to throw Kendall’s homerun ball back onto the field. If he hadn’t, the fans would have taken his head off.

4:58 Thank goodness that mess in New York ended. ESPN has now switched over to the Pirates/Reds and they have the wonderful Jon Miller and Joe Morgan doing the game. Grande and pal weren’t bad, but this is ESPN’s #1 team and they may not do another Pirate game all year. Jon Miller ranks only behind Vin Scully as a baseball announcer.

5:00 uh-oh, maybe I should switch back to the Reds broadcast. The pitcher Haynes is still in the game and he just laced a one out double off the wall in left in the 3rd. I’m not going to take many chances with this.

5:02 Benson walks Larkin. I don’t like ESPN at the moment. Boone hits a weak bouncer to Pokey who tries to swipe tag Larkin running by and then throw to first, but he can’t control the ball and everyone is safe. Griffey is up with the bases loaded and I’m back watching the Reds feed.

5:06 Benson K’s Griffey with high heat. I love the Reds feed. Two outs. Kearns up.

Bud Selig has stopped by the Reds booth this inning. Who thought making him commissioner was a good idea? He is so bland and unexciting and doesn’t say anything beyond the simple answer to the announcer’s questions…Kearns walks in the Reds first run…thereby making the answer to the trivia question “Who drove in the Reds first run at Great American Park?” as boring as the commissioner.

Oh no, Selig is talking about Pete Rose and he basically avoids all questions. He claims he cant say too much about the case, which I’m not sure why, this isn’t a court case, it’s his decision to make and he can talk all he wants about it. Yet Selig remains ever the lawyer, even though he’s also a used car salesman, and clams up. Welsh says Selig has guts to enter the heat of the argument by coming to Cincy, but this is your basic ass-kissing. There is no threat to Selig, he won’t say anything to get anyone angry.

Let’s see how ESPN affects the Bucs hitters in the top of the fourth.

5:25 Miller and Morgan have coaxed the Bucs to two men on with two outs, Kendall up and Giles on deck. Haynes is tottering on coming out but he gets Kendall to ground out and end the threat.

5:35 Johnny Bench enters the booth. Someday I’ll compile my all time team of players I saw and even though Bench was past his prime by the late 70s, he’d have a starting spot on it. However, they aren’t talking about the game. I suppose its Opening Day so everything is ceremonial so the broadcast is trying to keep in the mood, but the game has become an afterthought and the Bucs have two men on and nobody out.