I haven’t been back to Pittsburgh for a home opener since I moved to North Carolina in the summer of 2007. It would be a lie to say that I don’t miss it every year, but this year I really miss it. It’s obvious that the first home opener really means a lot to Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker just imagining the ovation Walker’s going to get before the game is already giving me chills.
It’s great to open the season with wins, but there’s nothing quite as exciting as seeing the Pirates win a game on a sunny April afternoon in PNC Park with a stadium full of people that just want the Pirates to be good again. Some years, that’s not easy because the team on the field is one that even the most optimistic fans know isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, unless you consider trade deadline fire sales “somewhere.” This year, the team is built differently.
I’ve said time and time again that I don’t really care how many games the Pirates win in 2011 (well, more than 57 would be super, but you know what I mean) so long as the right players make the right amount of progress. It just doesn’t make that much of a difference to me if the Pirates win 68 or 75 or 82 games this year as long as I can tell that Huntington and his process are advancing. But I really, really want to see this team get to 5-2 this afternoon.
Paul Maholm, who’s been a Pirate since 2005, gets the start against Esmil Rodgers at 1:35. Let’s break the bats out today.
