I shut this thing off at 2:30 pm, turned the channel on my bird's big TV to WKYC-TV (Cleveland) and watched the pregame show. At 3:05, precisely, the Indians' C.C. Sabathia threw the first pitch. The baseball season is on!

It was an i9ncredible game. I love hard-fought baseball, and that it was. The Chicago White Sox were in town for the opener, and they jumped off to a 2-0 lead on Jum Thome's first of two 2-run homeruns. In the BIG second inning the Tribe batted around the lineup and scored seven runs. Chicago later caught up with small ball, playing like they did the year they won the Series. In the 8th inning, with the score tied at 7-7, the Indians erupted for 3 more. In the final inning, at 10-7, the Tribe's closer, Joe Borowski, came on to finish it.

Every time they give Joe the ball my blood pressure must go through the roof. He struggles. He gives up hits. He even allows runs, but last year he had more saves (42) than anyone in the American League! Give me a break, Joe. End the game!

So what did he do? He promptly gave up a home run to Jermaine Dye! The score was 10-8. My heart beat bloody murder. There was one out.

Then he struck out the next batter, left another guy on base and got the final batter to pop up to the third baseman in foul territory.

Tribe wins the home opener.

It has been years since they opened at home (last year it was snowed out for the whole three-game series.) Today's weather was great. It was 62 at game time.

When I lived on the coast I went to most of the Indian's games out at Anaheim Stadium. The sometimes opened there. It was way back in the early or mid 1970's that I last went to a home opener in Cleveland. It was the old Municipal Stadium, and opening day was about the only day in any year they sold most of the seats. The regular week-time night games never had more than 6 or 8 thousand fans in the seats.

Since building the new stadium in 1994 and producing some champion-level teams (2 times in the World Series - 1995 and 1997) and going into the playoffs six or seven times in a row, the fan base has come back. For way over 450 consecutive games in the 1990's and early part of this century, the stadium sold out every game!

Today, of course, was a sellout. 41,000-plus fans with standing room for "walk-ups" on the Plaza.

I went to a couple post-season games last year. I saw them beat the Yankees and the Red Sox (the latter game was also the last the Indians won, and Boston went to the World Series.) We sat in the Cheap Seats, upper deck, extreme right field, under the little roof up there where you have to duck when the Goodyear Blimp gets too close!

Even the cheap seats at the new stadium (My God! It's already in its 14th season!) are intimately connected to the game. There just are not any bad seats there. The food is better, too. Unfortunately, I can't afford much of it when I go.

Hot dogs are $5 and up. Beer is about $8 a hit. A small bottle of water is $4.50. But wait, that was LAST year1. This year's prices are about 15 percent higher. Tickets are more these days. When I was a kid I sat in the old bleachers for 25 cents. A program was 50 cents. Programs now cost ten bucks and the tickets are twenty bucks up to about sixty.

TV makes baseball more affordable. I can watch or record any game I want. My hot dogs are done perfectly and I don't have to wait in a smelly line. I know nobody is going to spill their damn beer on my back when someone hits a homer. I won't get gum on the sole of my shoe. I can step out my own back door and smell that beautiful fresh-mown grass.

I just don't enjoy the commercials.

Viva Beisbol!