Today I attended the home opener for the Cleveland Indians for the second time in two years. I love baseball, especially the Indians, so the home opener is a celebration of the new season and the hope that comes with it that the team can win it all. Unfortunately, for quite a few people it's just an excuse to skip out on work and get drunk in the middle of the day. Fortunately, a lot of those people usually end up spending more time at the beer stand or in the bar than they do in their seats.

I assumed it was going to be pretty warm, since it was in the mid 60s when I left work at noon. But by the time we got downtown near Lake Erie, they was a stiff 30mph constant wind, and the temperature was about 48 degrees. If you were in the sun, you were warm. Otherwise, it was pretty chilly. Fortunately, our seats were a little on the 1st base side of home plate, which received sun most of the game. Unfortunately, the Indians could not pull it out and lost to the Chicago White Sox 2-1, as their offense has yet to really get going so far this season.

I'm not overly optimistic about the team's chances this year. They are going to be competitive, but I do not think they have what it takes to make it to the playoffs and beyond. Everyone has been looking for a solid offense, but there has been no signs of that so far this year. I'm excited about the addition of Kevin Millwood and the stability of the starting rotation, but I really think that Bob Wickman is far from the closer a winning team needs. Hopefully we do not see many repeats of his horrible debut this season, but I'm not holding my breath that it won't happen again.

This entry was posted by Brad, on Monday, April 11, 2005. You can leave your response.