Toronto Blues Jays in the longest home opener win
By Richard K. Barry
Today was opening day for a lot of Major League Baseball teams. The team I've been most interested in since the mid-1980's, the Toronto Blue Jays, of my adopted home town, got off to what looked like a rocky start, but pulled it out in 16 innings by a score of 7 to 4. This was, I just read, the longest opening day game in baseball history.
The game eclipsed the previous longest openers - 15 innings between Cleveland and Detroit in 1960 and the same length between Philadelphia and Washington in 1926. You see. Baseball is all about history, maybe more than any other game. Not sure why that is, but it's true.
I watched the first pitch at work at 3:05 in a colleague's office. The Jays were behind 4 to 1 late in the regular course of nine innings and then managed to tie things up and send it into extra frames, as the announcers say.
I have to admit that I more or less gave up on the Jays as I headed out for drinks with friends. Then sitting around the table later that evening one of our number mentioned that he just passed the television behind the bar and the game was still going on.
At some point, in the 16th, J.P. Arencibia hit a three-run homer that sent the Blue Jays to the 7-4 win over the Cleveland Indians. Too bad I didn't see it end. That would have been fun.
I just wrote all this because it feels so good to have baseball back and have my fingers type some of those rusty baseball cliches. I have no idea how the Blue Jays will do this year. The odds are probably against them. But a long weekend lies ahead and I get to watch a few games, which I am going to enjoy.
Just as a note, I sympathize with my co-blogger, Carl, who is a New York Mets fan and wrote about that on opening day. They were my first love and I continue to pull for them, but I don't live there anymore and a person can only have one favourite team. I suspect, however, that he and I will both be watching the playoffs without a team in the hunt come the fall.
(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)
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| J.P. Arencibia |
Today was opening day for a lot of Major League Baseball teams. The team I've been most interested in since the mid-1980's, the Toronto Blue Jays, of my adopted home town, got off to what looked like a rocky start, but pulled it out in 16 innings by a score of 7 to 4. This was, I just read, the longest opening day game in baseball history.
The game eclipsed the previous longest openers - 15 innings between Cleveland and Detroit in 1960 and the same length between Philadelphia and Washington in 1926. You see. Baseball is all about history, maybe more than any other game. Not sure why that is, but it's true.
I watched the first pitch at work at 3:05 in a colleague's office. The Jays were behind 4 to 1 late in the regular course of nine innings and then managed to tie things up and send it into extra frames, as the announcers say.
I have to admit that I more or less gave up on the Jays as I headed out for drinks with friends. Then sitting around the table later that evening one of our number mentioned that he just passed the television behind the bar and the game was still going on.
At some point, in the 16th, J.P. Arencibia hit a three-run homer that sent the Blue Jays to the 7-4 win over the Cleveland Indians. Too bad I didn't see it end. That would have been fun.
I just wrote all this because it feels so good to have baseball back and have my fingers type some of those rusty baseball cliches. I have no idea how the Blue Jays will do this year. The odds are probably against them. But a long weekend lies ahead and I get to watch a few games, which I am going to enjoy.
Just as a note, I sympathize with my co-blogger, Carl, who is a New York Mets fan and wrote about that on opening day. They were my first love and I continue to pull for them, but I don't live there anymore and a person can only have one favourite team. I suspect, however, that he and I will both be watching the playoffs without a team in the hunt come the fall.
(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)
posted by Richard K. Barry at
10:31 PM
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