Today was Opening Day for my hometown Cincinnati Reds - and I was there! This was my first ever opening day, and was totally unexpected.

I arrived at work this morning with an agenda for the day on my mind. Part of that was listening to the Reds’ game on the radio as I got my work done. However, about 30 minutes after I was settled in and working, I get a company-wide email from the HR person saying that two opening day are up for grabs. Wha?!? Two weeks ago, the company had a drawing for their 10 opening day tickets. That drawing included 4 alternates in case the original “chosen ones” couldn’t make it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t among any of those selected, so today I set the DVR to record the game with the intention of listening to the game at work and watching it later.

Apparently, two of those who had intended on going to the game decided, practically at the last minute, that they couldn’t make it because of the amount of work they had to get done. None of the alternates could make it either, so the two tickets were put up for another raffle. I jumped at the chance and it turns out that only my departmental co-worker and I signed up for. I was going to the game!

I left the office at 1pm for a 2:10pm start, hoping I could make it for the first pitch, but doubting I would. President Bush was throwing the ceremonial first pitch, so I figured there would be long lines for the security check and because it was opening day, I knew the traffic would be bad. Things were going my way this day, though, because I had parked and got in line by 1:30 and made it to my seat just minutes before the President threw out the pitch. My other co-worker left the office an hour before me and got there 15-20 minutes after me. She had been in line for over an hour. The Big Man Upstairs was helping me out on this day! The company still had the great seats from last year - section 117, row Y. I was 25 rows up from the field behind the 3rd base dugout. Thanks PPD!

Brr, it was a raw, chilly day! The temperature was about 46 degrees, but the wind was really blowing so it felt a whole lot colder. Since I didn’t know I was going to the game, I wasn’t prepared for the cold when I went to work dressed in a short sleeve Reds’ Jersey. Luckily, I have a fleece I keep in my car that came in handy and thankfully it didn’t rain at all.

Not only was this a big day for me as my first opening day, but, as I mentioned, President Bush was in attendance, so it was a big day for the city and the Reds since no current president had ever thrown an opening day pitch in Cincinnati. Bush tossed to catcher Jason LaRue, the current longest tenured player on the team and fellow Texas native. Bush was accompanied to the mound by two injured soldiers and a father who lost his son in Afghanistan, all of whom were honored before the first pitch.

As for the game itself - it started badly, got exciting, then plummented into disaster. The Cubs scored 5 runs in the first inning, but the Reds came back to tie it up at 5 in the fifth. That’s as close as we got to winning as the Cubs scored seven in the top of the 6th and four more in he 9th. The final score was 16-7.

One reason we lost the game was because of a reason that has plagued us for the last several years - pitching. Starter Aaron Harang gave up 5 earned runs in the first, then settled down a bit before giving up another in the 6th. Our relievers gave up 4 more earned runs. Bad start for what was supposed to be an improve pitching staff.

Now, if you were counting, you noticed that I only accounted for 10 of the 16 runs scored by the Cubs. The other six were unearned runs, resulting from very poor defense - in particular Adam Dunn. I have no clue what his problem was today, but even though he was only officially charged with one error, he had two other gaffes that certainly didn’t help the team’s efforts. His error, a dropped fly ball in the first inning, helped the Cubs with some of their five runs. Later in the game, while pursuing a fly ball, he fell down on the warning track after turning the wrong way. It looked like he was in little league. I forget what the other “non-error” was, but needless to say Dunn got cheered sarcastically every time he caught a fly ball for the rest of the game.

Pictures from the day are up in the Gallery