Play ball

The baseball season began in dramatic fashion Thursday for my Cincinnati Reds. A two-out, three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth snatched a win from what was looking like defeat. What a way to kick off a year in which a lot of hope and confidence is invested in this team.

Tonight I headed down to the second game of the season. A winning result was achieved without such showmanship, but who cares about style as long as the game ends with right team on top? That said, it was a good, fast game.

Perhaps most enjoyable was the atmosphere in the ballpark. The Reds have tried to make the second game an event--Opening Night--in order to bring people out after the highly in-demand Opening Day game. It worked, although it wasn't simply good marketing. The fact that almost 38 thousand turned out certainly had something to do with the expectations for this season.

Those hopes had the stadium hopping in a way that I don't remember seeing in the regular season, especially this early in it. The crowd seemed more engaged and vocal, which made it more fun to there. So this is what it's like to be on top, or at least have a good claim for it.