Opening Day!

...is off to a flying start! Except for the fact that Boston already started their season in Japan (an idea I really don't like) and the Yankees-Jays were rained out. To me, Opening Day, while less exciting than the first game of the NHL season (which should be mid-September, it's cold enough by then), is really the first day of spring. One day signals the shift from basements, pubs, wings and beer to barbeques, lawn chairs, wings and beer. A substantial change to be sure, and for that reason I like the idea of a unified Opening Day rather than sending one team off to Japan to start a week early. Nothing against growing the game internationally of course but Japan likes baseball more than the Americans, so what's the point?

Bad day for the Oilers yesterday. Nashville squeaks out a point against Detroit (IN Detroit!), Vancouver scores six goals in seven games against Calgary. Wait. Six goals in ONE game against Calgary. I know Flames fans would enjoy taking credit for eliminating Edmonton, but they shouldn't be proud the way they're doing it: by LOSING to everyone the Oilers are trying to catch. Right now (and until tomorrow night's action ends) Edmonton's two points back of Vancouver for 8th, one behind Nashville for 9th. Both teams have a game in hand. So, if Edmonton wins their two remaining games, Vancouver only wins one more while Nashville earns three points or less in their last three, the Oilers make the playoffs. Not great odds, but it's possible and would be more possible if Nashville wasn't playing Columbus, St. Louis, and Chicago every night for the last two weeks. So Game of the Year for Edmonton tomorrow night (v. 8.0) against Calgary, hopefully Colorado can keep playing well and beat Vancouver, St. Louis can pull off a miracle against the Predators and Washington beats Carolina because Ovechkin will make the Eastern playoffs worth watching if the Oilers don't make it. That's a lot to hope for. While I'm at it, I'd like twenty wins from A.J. Burnett and Roy Halladay, Frank Thomas to hit fastballs down the middle of the plate instead of watching them in confusion, Scott Rolen to out-perform Troy Glaus, T.J. Ford traded in the off-season (after improving his value during the rest of the season), and a pony.