The Home Opener...

I took the day off from both my jobs yesterday to attend the Home Opener at Coors Field between the Colorado Rockies and the Chicago Cubs.  It was a beautiful day, and the streets of Lower Downtown Denver were packed with fans.  Opening Day has become a popular party day here in Denver, rivaling even St. Patrick's Day.  It was especially crowded yesterday because the Rockies were playing the Cubs, who have a huge following out here.  In any case, I took the above photograph of the pregame festivities, which included a father and son looking at the action.  It reminded me of the first baseball game my father took me to many years ago.  It was in 1961, when I was 8 years old.  Although we lived on the South Side of Chicago in the Brainerd neighborhood and were Chicago White Sox fans, my father took me to Wrigley Field to see the Cubs play the Philadelphia Phillies that day.  I think it must have been a subliminal acknowledgement that Wrigley Field was the nicest ballpark in which to watch a game, but when I asked him about it years later, my father told me it was because the Phillies were in the process of setting the modern day baseball record for most consecutive losses, and that the Cubs would have a better than even chance of actually winning a game.  And he was right!  The Cubs did indeed win that day, and the Phillies went on to lose 23 games in a row.  Will the Cubs - or even the Rockies - best that record this year and go into the history books?  Stay tuned.  By the way, the Rockies beat the Cubs 5 to 1 and are now 4 and 0 for the season.  Break up the Rockies!