Reborn

Man, I don't know about all youse out there, but Large here has had one bitch of a winter. Lot of anxiety about money (and the lack thereof), lot of being away from my lady, lot of work and no play has made Large feel quite frequently, well, Small.

But look, things are on the upswing, and on that score, is there anything more welcome, more reassuring, more apt to expunge your every cynical urge than freakin flippin Opening Day?

At the Bank today, Large and Mama Large had a damn near perfect Opening Day 2007 (that's us on the right), all but for the Phils actually winning the game, but hey... the Phils never win on Opening Day, and Smoltz pitched a gem, and it is just one game and... okay, it didn't thrill me, no doubt, but it wasn't exactly the buzzkill that it might have been.

The weather was pristine. The pre-game festivities were short and to the point and briefly awesome, when the Navy parachute-team came hurtling into the outfield at top speed. Once the game started, everybody was drunk and in good spirits and overwhelmingly Phillies-oriented. In fact, I didn't hear a single Eagles cheer on the whole afternoon, and the only Eagles jersey I saw all day was a BDawk a couple of rows in front of me. (I did, however, take note of a very fly White Sox Carlton Fisk throwback in my section, which I dug, but which I also had to wonder about.)

So yes, we blew the game in the tenth and failed to knock in runners on second and third with no outs at a key moment and in general gave Howard Eskin plenty to rage about on WIP, all of which sound and fury we had no choice but to listen to because the traffic getting home was ungodly.

But no matter, friends. Fightin's look like a force to be reckoned with (Utley batting behind Howard, you feel me?), and more importantly baseball is back, the weather is turning fine, and oh goddamn everything is all right.