Opening Day!

Today is the official 1st day of the 2009 Baseball season. Opening day brings with it hope and excitement for baseball fans. Currently all teams are equal and they all feel like they have a change to play in World Series in October. The Braves officially kicked of the season last night in Philadelphia beating the defending champs 4-1. On the night where the Phillies raised their World Series banner, the Braves jumped on them early and didn’t let up. It was the Braves debut for a couple of players, Derek Lowe and Jordan Schafer. Derek Lowe pitched eight shutout innings, recording 1-2-3 innings in six of those innings, allowing two hits and no walks in his first start as a Brave. Rookie Jordan Shafer was 2-for-3 and homered in his first MLB at-bat, the first player to do that since Mark Saccomanno (Astros) on Sept. 8, 2008. The rookie center fielder became the fifth Atlanta player to homer in his debut and first since Francoeur did it in 2005. These two had pretty impressive debuts and both have bright futures with the Braves.Overall the Braves looked good and might have changed a lot of the media’s mind on who will win the division. No one is picking the Braves to win their division. I know it is only one game, but the things I saw in the game last night impressed me. I am very proud that Jeff Francoeur has seemed to work out his stance and his swing. I just hope he doesn’t regress and get back in those bad habits he had last year. The team really needs Francoeur to produce this year.

Today, the rest of the teams are in action and the season is officially underway. Even though the weather is still cool, (the game in Chicago was postponed on the count of snow) I am looking forward to getting down to the ballpark and cheering on the Braves!