Opening Day/night in Toronto, with the retirement of Chili Palmer's number. Or rather, Roberto Alomar doing his best Chili Palmer impression while the Jays do their best impression of retiring numbers: Putting His Name On The Level Of Excellence. I really tried to find a Get Shorty clip showing the Travolta strut because Alomar looked just like him, same clothes too. Nice ceremony, great to see Paul Beeston get his due. Alomar was my favorite player when I was younger, as he was for probably every kid that age. I did everything I could to emulate him: played second base, wore #12, tried the backhand jump-throw whenever possible, tried, foolishly, to switch-hit, same batting stance, same basestealing stance, and paid out whatever necessary for his assorted baseball cards. Just too bad Alomar's exit wasn't more positive, there were a lot of negatives around at that time for the league (with the 1994 Players' strike) and for the team, who were bought by Interbrew in 1994 and failed to impress during the Gord Ash era. Certainly the Ash era was an unsuccessful one but no worse than the Riccardi era. A better drafting record certainly, having grabbed Vernon Wells, Orlando Hudson, and Michael Young in the 1997 draft alone, while drafting Roy Halladay in 1995. Riccardi has what, Aaron Hill? That's good, but anyone else?
Marcum looks great through five, 0 runs/1 hit/5 K's/53 pitches. Looks so far like last year's offensive production is still the norm though, with only two hits themselves. Good pitcher's dual at least, would be a shame to waste Opening Night/Alomar/Marcum all at once.
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