Indians 12, White Sox 5

I took a personal day today — back late from vacation on the West Coast, and it's Opening Day, for crying out loud! — and I was able to watch a lot of the game from the sports bar down the road. I was unpacking, getting things done around the house, and by the time I got settled in front of a television, the Tribe was up 5-0.

I've always known the Sports Depot to be hopping: it's where I go on Saturdays in the fall, when the godforsaken local networks spurn OSU football in favor of some lesser game involving Boston College. Without fail I find the place occupied by swarms of decked-out fan cliques: Buckeyes, Huskers, Gators, Vols, etc. On a Tuesday afternoon in April — with the Red Sox opener scheduled for later in the day — it's just a couple of locals playing Keno, and little old me.

The game was an Extra Innings broadcast on a satellite feed, where the Home Team calls the game. So it was the Comiskey Clowns, Hawk Harrelson and Darrin Jackson, at the mike. Fortunately, audio wasn't available — close-captioning wasn't working, either, as presumably most stenographers find transcribing the words of these yahoos beneath their dignity.

As the afternoon wore on, the bar filled up around me. Sox fans settling in to watch Curt Schilling get (ha-ha!) shelled. The local sports talk station, WEEI, ran a promotion at the bar. They passed out key rings and took people's names to enter into a drawing for "2 tickets to Dice-K's first start." The "Dice-K" phenomenon (nickname included) is already tiresome. Fans cheered when Trot Nixon came to the plate for Our Boys, and the on-screen graphic reported that he was 3 for 4 on the days. They jeered Alex Rodriguez's eighth-inning home run. In Boston sports bars there are always several television sets monitoring the progress of the Yankees. "Typical A-Rod," was the sentiment. "Homers when they're already ahead." I could have pointed out that the Devil Rays' offense is actually pretty good, and the game was still in doubt when Rodriguez homered. But whatever. It was enough that I could smell their fear. I felt no further need to coax more of it into the open air.

In point of fact, Sox fans should have focused their worry on the lone screen over the bar, tuned to Comcast Sports Central, where ominous happenings foretold the rise of a juggernaut in the American League Central. These '07 Indians were exploding all over the White Sox. Exploding. And all these Bostonians went along with their business, sipping their Sammies, shouting out answers to the WEEI PR guy's Red Sox trivia questions, directing insults at Melky Cabrera. They have no idea they're on line to collide with Mark Shapiro's asteroid.

Kind of sad, when you think about it. I'd have warned them, but who wants a Cassandra Complex? And besides, it'll be all the more enjoyable to see these yokels blindsided.

Some thoughts on what I saw — as it's not often I get to see a game, instead of just listening to it:

*Not sure if the game was pulled to widescreen, but C.C. still looks pretty big. Grizzly-bear big . . . I like to think it was widescreen. The Bud Light logo behind home plate looked a little stretched, too. I was glad to see Sabathia back on the mound after the line-drive incident last week (I first learned of this over lunch at the Cliff House in San Francisco; a television over the restaurant bar was on ESPN, and the news passed across the ticker at screen's bottom — I about lost it), glad to see him bear down in the sixth and work out of the bases-loaded jam.

*Liked what I saw of Peralta at the plate. Nice line drive up the middle in the second at-bat — not trying to do too much.

*Grady looks pretty locked-in to me, notwithstanding the horrific spring stats. This is a good thing, as I had picked him second overall in my fantasy draft, after Santana. (This elicited some chuckles from the other GMs at the time, along with a flurry of "NOT PUJOLS?" posts in the online chat. I'll explain the logic behind this selection in a later post.) The leadoff homer was encouraging, but even more so was Sizemore's long drive to deep right center off the lefthander. Caught by Ozuna for a long out, but I liked the swing he put on the ball. If Grady figures out lefties this year, we're talking AL MVP. Easy.

*Marte looks lost at the plate. Completely lost. Nice, soft hands in the field. Made all the plays, but my Gawd. You have to get some production at 3B. You like to think he'll settle in, now that the job's essentially his. In the meantime, yeesh.

*I didn't see the last of the ninth, as I was off to pick up The Boy at day care. I wasn't surprised to hear that the Sox tallied two in the last frame. Let's hope that's the classic "No Save Situation/Closer Don't Care" dynamic at work, and J-Bor was just working on his pitches.

All in all, a terrific start to the season. Projected final season record, at current pace: 162-0. Wahoo! ¡Honron! Let's play ball! Et cetera.