ESPN is obviously taking the NHK feed, which gives us both some interesting angles and an announcing team that's interesting. None seem very comfortable, especially Peter. Having done radio now -- and still hoping to do some play by play - it's a lot tougher than it looks. For a guy that does radio each week, I'm lucky I'm a writer.

The Big Egg has what looks like hockey glass and netting all the way up the lines. I'm not sure exactly why, but I like it. Ravech just said that ushers blow whistles to warn people of foul balls. Weird.

Have I mentioned how much Tivo changes the way you watch a game? I'm about five minutes behind right now, but I'm missing all the commercials. This is going to come in real handy when the election ads start.

There's no radar reading in the scorebox today. Zambrano appears to be in the 92-94 range. Mussina's doing something new - or at least something I haven't noticed. He's almost raising off his toe as he delivers the ball.

The ads on the arms and batting helmets are a bit odd at first, but fade out. I'm on record as saying that it really doesn't bother me. If someone wants to go all-out Japanese and name their team, for instance, the Tribune Cubs, I wouldn't really mind that either.

Doesn't seem to be a lot of chanting and singing, but it could be just the mic situation. America isn't a chanting country, but it can be pretty cool in small doses.

Same ol' "I Live For This" ads we saw late last season. It's been six months - they can't come up with one new one? Maybe they're saving them for Opening Day.

Super slo-mo on Mussina's knuckle-curve ... it's just a bad knuckler. He's not doing anything with his wrist, he's not setting an angle. It's hanging too, so not sure if it's what he normally does. Mussina looks uncomfortable. Immediately, they cut to a shot of Torre and Stottlemyre talking and looking concerned.

Is there any point to the deep bow that Mussina does from the stretch?

Torre looks more and more like he should be a character on The Sopranos. He could put the kibosh on Johnny Sack in no time. He'd probably be related to Silvio somehow.

Ok, now that one was the knuckle-curve. I'm a bit confused by the previous pitch I saw now, because it was a prototype knuckler - two fingers digging in and almost no spin.

"Good grief!" Peter busts out with Charlie Brown's old line as Toby Hall stupidly runs on Posada. You know, if you told me Charlie Brown would grow up to be Peter Gammons, I wouldn't be that surprised.

The commercials for the Women's NCAA Tourney are pretty cool, but I'm still not going to watch.

When I had cancer, when I finally got my hope back, I started telling myself that if I could just make it to Opening Day, I'd be okay. Turns out that was true, but there was a lot of medicine to it. Anyway, as I sit here, I can see the sun is just starting to come up. It's not the "real" Opening Day, but it's still nice to see the sun and another season of baseball starting.

Remember those hideous "Future" uniforms from a few years back? I'll bet that 100 years from now, Yankees unis will probably look exactly like they do now. Maybe some different materials, but the pinstripes are just the definition of classic.

Did the Bowflex ad just say "core?" I think it actually said "sexy core." Yikes, it's mainstream.

Hmm, why isn't this game on ESPN rather than ESPN2? Is the Never Ending Sportscenter that important? I'm not sure if the penetration is much different these days, but imagine the NFL Thursday night kickoff game being on the Deuce.

Lou didn't get the memo about sacrifice bunts.

Pretty nice play by A-Rod. Looks like one of those patented Jeter leaps.

Mussina's really struggling. None of his pitches look comfortable and he's yet to find an arm slot where he can live. He just crossed up Posada to boot. 60 pitches through 4 2/3. Huff crushed the ball, but right at Sheffield. Mussina's lucky to get out of that inning.

Does anyone really buy these books that this moron Lesko advertises everywhere? He's getting more and more obnoxious. Probably the same people buying that 20 year old Tom Emanski video.

Wow, I didn't recognize Goose Gossage. I almost hate seeing players when they're still "young" enough to recognize, but when they're old enough to make me feel old.

Quick break for some Peet's Major Dickason ... then Part 2.