Opening Day!

Man, I missed baseball.

Some Opening Day notes:

Whoever wrote this: "Jim Thome is still an incredible hitter against righties, but has become nearly impotent against lefties" sure missed the mark Monday. Thome hit two homers off of C.C. Sabathia.

The Victor Martinez injury looked pretty bad, but he seemed to be walking it off fine, and the off day tomorrow will help. I'll admit I was pretty worried initially, because there are two players this team cannot stand an injury to, and Martinez is one of them.

The Indians sure did seem to get every close call in their favor. As a Cleveland fan, I can attest to the rarity of having that happen, but I'll certainly take it. Cleveland teams have been owed more than a few over the past many, many years.

Sample Size comments: Good to see Casey Blake come through in the clutch. Over the past couple of years he'd really struggled in those opportunities. I realize it's one game, but is it too early to be a little worried about Jensen Lewis? Lewis' velocity was down all spring, and he didn't look terribly good Monday.

I can't help but dig the old school uniforms. I tend to enjoy any cap that doesn't have Chief Wahoo on it - my favorite cap had been the one with the script I. I have one of those that no longer fits my Bondsianly (wow, that's an impressive made up adverb) swelling head. Apparently, these throwbacks are the new home alternates, although I really liked the previous alternates, which were the vests.

Within the next week or so I'll have previews of the Indians minor league affiliates, as well as some thoughts on the rest of baseball, although understandably not as focused as my mini-previews were on the AL Central teams.