Thoughts from last night’s Phillies game (Updated)

With Karilee in town visiting, Karilee, Kim and I drove down to Miami yesterday to see the Phillies play the Marlins in their home opener for the season. Here are some thoughts from the Phillies 8-2 win…

1. The Phillies bullpen stinks. I was so glad the Phillies added three extra runs on the home run by Pat Burrell in the top of the seventh, allowing Papa Charlie to run out Jamie Moyer probably an extra inning longer that he would have in a close game. Something has got to be done about this if the Phillies hope to be real contenders.
2. Joe Robbie Stadium, err, Pro Player Park, err, what is it these days, oh yeah, Dolphin Stadium is a joke for baseball. Having now attended a Marlins home game, I get their fight for a new stadium. Now, personally, I think that stadium financing should be a private endeavor (under most circumstances) as I don’t think that average taxpayers should be building stadiums for billionaires. But, with that said, they do need a new park. Concessions were a disgrace (Karilee and Kim stood in line for 3.1 innings, over an hour, for chicken strips and fries!), but matched the poor quality of the park.
3. We attended the most crowded game of the year for the Marlins. An announced attendance of 40,397 will be cut in half for tonight’s game, as well as every other game this year. There will be (many) 3 game series this year where they don’t get 40,000 in attendance.
4. Let’s return again to Pat Burrell’s home run. It was the top of the 7th with a runner on base and Ryan Howard comes to the plate. Intentional Walk. That will happen all year, unless… unless this home run from Pat Burrell is the sign of things to come. If he can hit a couple of home runs immediately following intentional walks, teams will rethink the idea of walking Howard. And a successful, home run hitting Howard is vital to this team’s success.
5. And finally, for all the smack talking from Jimmy Rollins and others on this team did during the offseason, getting swept at home was not the way to start. While it was great to get a win, this team needs to remember the message of past Aprils. You can’t win a pennant in April, but you can lose one. The 10-14 record during April each of the past two years has come back to bite them in September. If this is going to be the year the Phillies return to October, then they need the fast start they always talk about and never actually deliver.
6. (Updated) Fly-By’s Rock!  As we were walking up the ramp toward our seats, 3 jets flew by.  The whole building shook!  Kim was so scared, she literally jumped.  It was awesome!