More Opening Day Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

The Cincinnati Red Stockings won the first ever professional baseball game on May 4, 1869. They then went on to win their next 129 games until their winning streak was broken by the Brooklyn Atlantics. That seems to be some cosmic bad news for the Reds who today play the Mets (the spiritual heirs to the Brooklyn Dodgers who I guess would have been heirs to the Atlantics)... Ted Kennedy is scheduled to throw out the first pitch today at Fenway Park if he is healthy enough. No disrespect to Kennedy but this is an insult to Jim Rice who is newly elected to the Hall of Fame. Can you imagine another franchise who would have a player elected to the HoF but not have him throw out the first pitch while instead having a politician do the honor?... Time flies. The last time the Indians opened against the Rangers in Texas- Manny Ramirez was still on the team and Cleveland was so loaded offensively that ManRam batted 7th... Nick Johnson is the only remaining player on the Nationals roster who was with the Expos when the team moved to Washington... The Tampa Bay Rays had 16 sellouts last season but 8 of those sellouts were playoff games. The Red Sox always have full capacity at Fenway...