Well, my big Opening Day adventure has come and gone, and it was great fun. I do wish I'd spent more time in and around the park to soak up the atmosphere and see some of the changes made to Fenway, but I did get to see all of the pre-game and the ripping 5-3 victory over the Jays.

Both anthems were done well (ours by a 5 year old who'd been helped by the Jimmy Fund, Canada's by a local youth choir with an assist from Adam Stern - or as he was called on Sunday's TV broadcast, "Canada's DiMaggio"), and the ceremonial first pitch by the living members of the 1946 pennant-winners was something to see - although the oldest member almost took a tumble afterwards, a problem given that he's 93.

The game itself was reasonably well-played if a little nerve-wracking given the general dearth of scoring after the one big inning. I've gotten a little too used to the 11-7 sort of scores, I think. Beckett pitched very well after a 36 pitch first inning (from where I was sitting it was hard to tell if he was getting squeezed or legitimately missing), and I got to see some accidentally great defense (a DP turned after the ball ricocheted off of Mark Loretta's glove) and accidentally bad defense (Willy Mo Pena riffing on Jose Canseco by having a ball bounce off of him for a home run). Sad to think this will likely be the only game I see in person all year, what with the scarcity (and price) of tickets.

And while I don't have Cooch's gig, I do have my own useless stat of the day: Bronson Arroyo has more home runs right now than Manny Ramirez. He's also tied with David Ortiz. I know that will work itself out, but how could I pass up a mention?