April 2, 2004 [LINK]
Play ball!
Another sign that spring is really here is BASEBALL!!! The Tampa Bay Devil Rays somehow beat the Yankees in the opening day game in the sold-out Tokyo Dome (capacity 55,000), but the Yanks got more than adequate revenge the next day, winning by 12 to 1. Jorge Posada homered twice, and Hideki "Godzilla" Matsui thrilled the crowd with a home run of his own. The short power alleys in that ballpark (only 361 feet) probably account for most of the runs in that slugfest. It's nice to have such international exposure for our national pastime, but there's something not quite right about staging Opening Day abroad. It should be held in The Nation's Capital, like in the old days... Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell complained about the ungodly hour at which the first game was broadcast (5:00 A.M.) and slammed Commissioner Bud Selig's short-sighted commercialism.
In time for the "real" Opening Day, the U.S. Cellular Field page has been revised, with new diagrams that show the original design and the recently completed renovation. The Anaheim Stadium and SBC Park (formerly Pac Bell Park) pages have been updated to reflect the changes in their names during the off season, and the former page has an improved dynamic stadium diagram. Yet to be revised are the diagrams for Olympic Stadium and Busch Stadium.