Opening Day Shirt & Schedule Cling (SGA 4/5/11 & 4/6/11)

I got a lot of pretty cool Padres stuff for my birthday (4/3). To bad these 2 items don't land in the cool category.....

First up, is the t-shirt that was given away on Opening Day (4/5/11). Let me say that I despise shirt giveaways because they always give away XL shirts. I don't wear an XL. I sometimes find myself ripping out the seams and creating 20 new shirts for orphans in Africa with the material used on that 1 shirt. Plus they always have the lamest logos (is that clipart?).

The game drew 43,146 people as the Padres took on the defending World Series champs, the San Francisco Giants. It was typical "scrappy" Padres baseball on this day. Down 1-0 after the first inning, the pitching locked in and shut down the Giants offense the rest of the way, throwing 8 scoreless innings with strong performances by Aaron Harang, Luke Gregerson, Mike Adams and Heath Bell. Nick Hundley & Chris Denorfia provided 5 of the team's 7 hits and the Padres beat the Giants 3-1.

The 2nd or 3rd game of the season (SGA 4/6/11) usually brings you the magnet schedule. It's something that's not flashy, but back in the day was a good tool for everyone to keep track of games. Now we have a little thing called the internet and magnet schedules aren't so necessary anymore. They are pretty much just filler now on promotional schedules all across baseball. "Uhhhh....we are playing on a Wednesday afternoon the day after the Home Opener. Let's give them magnet schedules...except this time let's get rid of the magnet part and make them stickers that can be used as mouse pads. Because I'm sure instead of typing in Padres.com on their computer they'll just move their mouse out of the way and check out this tiny schedule." I may or may not have bugged the room when that conversation was happening.

In the battle of Tim's, San Francisco's Tim Lincecum easily owned the weak Padres offense smoking striking out 13 batters, while the Padres Tim Stauffer struggled early by giving up 3 runs in the 1st inning. The Padres ushered out 6 pitchers total and didn't put up much of a fight on offense until the end, when they scored 3 runs and had the tying run come to the plate with 2 outs in backup catcher Rob Johnson. He popped out to center. Giants win 8-4.

We are now in the second season of the Padres Blueprint. Heath Bell graced the cover of the April issue in the new Camo uni's. I was a fan of these programs last year and I'm still a fan this year.