My fantasy draft was held Sunday - a few hours before the first regular-season pitch. While I tried to pick up Sox players, my efforts were in vain.

The price of Boston's players is quite high in this region. Even if they are great, I couldn't see spending the money. So the only Sox player I was able to add to my roster: Matt Clement. He, however, was cheap.

My team however looks good. On paper, every team looks good.

With my roster in hand, I took Monday off to watch five baseball games.

I love opening day. It's like Christmas. I can't sleep the night before (dancing baseballs and swinging bats in my head); I wake up with butterflies; run to the store and sit with friends - eat, drink and be merry.

One downfall: my thumb hurts from remote-itis (toggling between games can be dangerous).

The Red Sox are in first place after a brilliant outing by Curt Schilling. He was consistently hitting the gun at 90+ mph. I'll take that on April 3.

The fielding looks to be pretty good too - both Manny Ramirez and Coco Crisp made made dramatic catches.

However, the change in left in the late innings, which I welcomed, didn't pan out as expected. I'm surprised Adam Stern couldn't catch up to the ball.

Keith Foulke looks like a huge gamble. Though he entered the game with a big lead, he made it things a bit interesting. Everyone was hitting the snot out of the ball. He either couldn't fool anyone or he is not ready yet. His first outing was supposed to be a confidence builder, but may have had the opposite effect. If I were the Sox, I'd be looking to replace him already.

The Rangers seemed to make a huge mistake pitching to David Ortiz with two outs, a 3-0 count, and a man on second. Now I don't mind, but I fully expected an intentional walk in that situation. Instead Big Papi took the ball deep and hit the top of the foul pole with a towering shot. It's like there was never a break.

Mike Lowell hitting his first home run of the season was a good sign. I looked up his stats all spring and was unimpressed. Rumor said he couldn't catch up with the fastball, but he got under one yesterday. If he can get himself up to the 20 home run range, while playing his usual stellar defense, I'll be ecstatic.

On the dark side, the Yankees dominated their first game out against Oakland. I was watching for three reasons:

1) I wanted to see how Randy Johnson looked. Better than fine. He seemed to be in mid-season form. But didn't strikeout as many people as I would have expected.

2.) I wanted to see Johnny Damon in his first regular season game. He also did quite well going 7-2-3-1, with two doubles. I picked him up in my fantasy draft, for fairly cheap money and sentimental reasons. He's the only Yankee I've ever drafted! I'm sure he'll have a tremendous year, not sure how I feel about that.

3.) I wanted to see how Eric Chavez would do. He's one of my favorite players. He has all the tools. He's not that flashy, but he's fun to watch. I also have him on my fantasy team which doesn't hurt unless he's going up against a tough lefty like last evening.
I seem to have some love for the hot corner. Most of my favorite players in the game have come from the third base position. It all started with Mike Schmidt, who I idolized as a child. Chavez and now David Wright are taking Schmidt's place.

Though they lost their first game, if Oakland is 10 games out or better they'll be in good position to win their division.

All and all a great day! Helps me forget about the rain.

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