Opening Day, not opening day

This has been, pretty much, the best Opening Day, ever.

The Tigers were as good as I've ever seen 'em in an Opener: one of the best pitching performances of all time by a Detroit hurler on Opening Day; a couple of dingers; a homer-robbing catch by the new guy Cespedes and a save for the maligned Joe Nathan.  Just about a perfect afternoon except for the game not being played at Tiger Stadium, that’s all. 

Most Important Tigers Play of the Day:  Not many would pick this one I know, but to me it was Jose Iglesias making that stop in the hole in the 9^th inning for the first out.  That guy reaches—and he should have on a play Iglesias made look routine—and while I’m not saying the Tigers lose the game, the dynamic changes completely.  They probably take Price out right there and instead of having to get a single out to end it, Nathan has to come in for a three-out save.  It was a Major League play, the kind a good Major League team makes to close out ballgames.  The kind of play that enables you to win easy, 4-0, instead of having to gut it out and have to hold on at the end.

I've been watching baseball on mlb.tv and elsewhere for 11 hours now--14 games on this busiest Opening Day in MLB history--and I have seen it all.  Here are our Top Five (okay, there are seven, sue me) moments from Opening Day, 2015 all of which I saw live:

(Late Edit, 1:27am edt, Thanks a lot Sonny Gray!) And by the way and for the record, from first pitch in Detroit until the last out in Arizona, Opening Day 2015 last 12 hours and 21 minutes...

#1 Sonny Gray takes no-hitter into 8th, becomes 1st since Lemon in '52 to pitch at least eight innings and allow only 1 hit on Opening Day in 8-0 romp over Rangers.

#2	Keuchel outduels Kluber in Houston duel.
#3	Scherzer perfect through 5 in DC debut, allows 3 unearned, loses.
#4	Price one out away from rare Opening Day complete game in 4-0 Tigers win.
#5	Rain Delay in Miami, where the stadium has a roof.
#6 (tie)	Jimmy Rollins breaks tie with three-run shot in 8th in Dodgers 6-3 win over San Diego.
#6 (tie)	Todd Frazier breaks tie with three-run shot in bottom of the 8th in Reds 5-2 win over the Bucs

I Can Remain Silent No Longer

I was going to write something about the Red Wings disastrous loss tonight--and perhaps I will tomorrow--but I came across this item on Wonkette.com and it made me forget all about hockey and really, if you know me at all you know that doesn't happen too often...

Because all it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to remain silent, I am compelled to comment on this. 

Ted Nugent told a GOP dinner, a Lincoln Day Dinner or some such in Maricopa County, AZ:

“Here’s your job, Republican Party. Twenty to 25 of those guys [veterans] kill themselves every day, and they haven’t told you why and they haven’t told anybody else why but they told me why: because the commander-in-chief is the enemy.” (Story courtesy of Right Wing Watch).

I say (and it's actually someone else doing the saying, I just wish I'd thought of it first but I will appropriate it because it sums up this sorry incident perfectly):

Draft-dodging, self-shitting child rapist says what?

Fuck Ted Nugent. 

I want all of you Republicans to remember this:  He is on your team. He is one of you.  For that, you should be ashamed.  If you are not, I am ashamed for you.

And let us never forget.  The name of the President who sent those service men and women off to suffer and die come back with the PSTD and other wounds which today compel them to choose suicide over life in such shocking numbers (and that he sent them off to war FOR NO REASON AT ALL) was not President Barack Obama.  It was President George W. Bush, may he rot in Hell (with Ted Nugent at his side) for all eternity.

I will pray and ask that God gives me the strength to find it within me to pray for my enemies as Jesus told me I must.  And for that German pilot, too.  And for the murderers of the 150 college kids today in Kenya.  But that strength is not in me tonight.  Not even on Good Friday.