The Fro has a Savior
The Padres home opener is in the books and what a game it was! I'm glad we made it too, because around 10:00AM yesterday, things were looking bleak for the Fro. All of us weren't quite sure we could get the time off of work, so we held off on buying tickets and then when the time came to get tickets, they were all sold out. Then all of a sudden a savior swooped in and saved the day with 3 tickets. The Fro was saved! A HUGE thanks goes out to that person.
Upon arrival Marshall and myself roamed the 1090 block party for a bit. There were numerous opportunities for a Fro Challenge, but we passed on it this time in exchange for the numerous free food samples given out at various tents. Local reggae favorites Common Sense were performing on the 91X stage so we stopped to listen for a second as they sang a song about legalizing marijuana. This group of people really seemed to like the performance...
We eventually made it to the 1090 radio booth and chatted with RJ & Darren for a bit. After that I went about 2 booths over and sat there and watched random unsuspecting people get pelted in the head by peanuts flying through the air. And no I'm not talking about some punk kids throwing a single peanut at people. I'm talking about an actual booth, throwing out free bags of peanuts at people. Nothing better than seeing grandma walking by harmlessly enough, only to get pelted in the head with a bag of peanuts. Enjoy the game grandma! All of sudden we hear some people yelling and acting all crazy and knew a camera must be around somewhere. Sure enough, Chrissy Russo was walking around interviewing people and just finished interviewing the Padres trio of Owner Jeff Moorad, President Tom Garfinkel & the Head of Branding/Marketing Laura Broderick. No they weren't the ones acting all crazy but they did venture on through the crowd meeting and greeting people after the interview. FINALLY we got a phone call from Beautown letting us know he was there, so we went to meet him over on Tony Gwynn Dr. On our way over we were asked by a wonderful young lady if we would like our picture taken with Uncle Teddy!! So we head over there.....
.....and then she pulls out this. He's looking a lot skinnier these days.....and a lot less alive. Hmmm....strange. She wanted us to get in the pic but I told her it would just ruin things so I snapped this one of her with him. As we approached T Gwynn Dr we noticed quite possibly the longest American flag in the history of American Flags. Very cool sight to see and unfortunately because of the rain the flag was not used.
Once inside we were handed one of the new FREE Padres "Blue Print" programs. Nice job Moorad and Co! The minor league teams do the same thing and I always thought it was better than having a big full sized program to lug around with you in case you wanted to look up an opposing players number or something. Oh yeah and it's free. We then headed over and met with Friarhood Steve at the Tony Gwynn statue. Dex of Gaslampball was there and even David "Boomer" Wells was there (j/k Scott). We chatted for a bit about very important top secret Padres blog stuff and then headed to our seats. Just as we were heading down to our seats the sky opened and it started to rain for about 1-2 minutes and then cleared up for the rest of the game....disaster averted. Colbie Caillat did an awesome job with the National Anthem (best I've ever heard at Petco) and the fly over was cool as always for America's "military city". Unfortunately because of the rains though the enormous flag did not make an appearance.
17 runs is a lot of game to recap so I'll just say that Will Venable, Kyle Blanks & Kevin Correia shined yesterday and everyone else had a great game too......unless you were a Brave. I'll let the pro's give you a game recap and just post about the random ballpark stuff now.
The Chicken made a surprise appearance during the game and I actually did not see the Friar once (although some people posted on Twitter that they did). Look at these crazy new owners....all listening to the fans. Sandy must be rolling over in his grave right now. I wanted to post stuff on Twitter but had absolutely no reception from my seat except for the few random times it decided to work for about a minute or so. I got me a 5 dollar beer and it will probably be my last.....very small & the selection isn't the best. The Park View Little League banners are STILL up. Great story, great kids but seriously this a major league team and you need to start marketing those major league players. Finally what is it with the ballpark clearing out in the 7th inning? The Padres were up by 15 & 2 players were a hit short of the cycle, this doesn't happen very often Padres fans...stick around and enjoy it. All in all great game by the Pads and I'm impressed with all the changes the new regime has established. In fact I even saw a doughnut & cofee vendor walking around....ahhhh Breakfast...I just cannot escape you.
Now onto the good, the bad & the meh.....
THE GOOD
The Fro's Savior!!
Loved the Block Party. I would like to see this happen more often....but will the fans show up like that any other time besides Opening Day?
The new "Blue Print" program
Colbie Caillat's National Anthem performance. I thought she did a great job with it.....I wonder what Bill Center thought?
The fans sell out Petco!
17 RUNS!?!?!?! Before this game they scored 19 runs............ in 6 games!!
Will Venable & Kyle Blanks.....almost hitting for the cycle
Kevin Correia straight up dealing for most of the day & even got himself a hit
The weather....with the exception of about 1-2 minutes before the game the day was beautiful as always in San Diego
THE CHICKEN!!!
THE BAD
Uhhh.....no phone reception?? How am I supposed to get on Twitter?
Fans leaving wayyyy to early
Lines for the GUYS bathroom....really??
Phillip Rivers wild pitch...everyone says he was the reason for the 17 runs....I think it was Colbie Caillat
The magical blue box on the big scoreboard that kept popping up during EVERY highlight...hopefully it gets fixed soon
Park View LL Banners still outside Petco.....really? Aren't those kids shaving and working day jobs now?
Not a fan of the new mid-inning hype man. Weisbarth did a fine job in previous years....I'll go easy on the new guy though...it was his first day.
*Beautown wants to add that the city needs to hurry up and finish the bridge already*
THE MEH....
$5 dollar beers....yes they are 5 bucks but they are also the size of a children's sippy cup. I give it a meh because at least they are trying.
So Game One is in the books with a 6-3 loss to the D-Hacks. Since RJ's Fro started back in January, we have been waiting anxiously for baseball season to start. I'm real excited about this young team and what they will be able to do this year. Thanks to all our readers for sticking with us while we were making the move over to the Bloguin network. We here at the Fro want to give the online world our take on everything Padres baseball - past, present, and future. There are still many question marks about this young team and their new ownership and front office. But that's what makes baseball and writing about baseball so much fun.
