VORSing the BMGM on Opening Day

We could play Opening Day bingo. I could feed my text into the Baseball Metaphor Generating Machine (it works by adjusting Value Over Replacement Simile) and talk about hope springing eternal. But let’s skip it. Especially since hope isn’t springing. Hope has sprung.

There’s a definite feeling among the team and the fans that this is the Diamondbacks’ year. The front office has made it very clear that they’re in win now mode -- you can tell because that’s the only way to justify spending $7.5 million on Jason Kubel just after Gerrado Parra wins a Gold Glove in left field. The front office wants to go to the World Series. Kirk Gibson wants it, the players want it, and the fans want it. This is it.

Which is why I was walking through Chase Field nearly vibrating with excitement and proclaiming, “It’s all happening!” over and over to a friend. Opening Day wasn’t about hope for me but about the exciting arrival of a day you’ve been looking forward to for a very long time. It’s Christmas. It’s getting on the plane to Disneyland after months of counting down the days. Something very good has been coming our way and it’s finally here..

And it was good. I got the chills as fighter jets flew over Chase Field (is there a dramatic flyover corps in the Air Force because if that’s all they do, it’s a pretty sweet gig). I sat in the sun. I dripped ice cream down the front of my brand new customized jersey. And I watched the Diamondbacks win.

Tim Lincecum, making poor choices, said leading into Opening ay that the first series was important, that it would set a certain tone after the defending World Series champs not only lost the division to Arizona but the Dbacks clinched the division while playing the Giants at home at Chase.

Timmy thought the games would make a statement and they did. They stated that Arizona is in this thing, that predictions of the Giants to walk over the division on the strength of their pitching and the return of Buster Posey riding a unicorn sent by God on a mission to deliver the Giants with championships were premature. The Diamondbacks sent a resounding message that if anyone wants to take the division, they’re going to have to fight.

Because, let’s face it, the games weren’t great. I was at the park Friday and Saturday and watched most of Sunday’s on TV. In the words of Cher Horowitz, the series was a complete Monet: okay from far away but up close it’s a total mess. The pitching was only all right, good enough when it needed to be. Kennedy and Hudson were just okay, Collmenter had a complete meltdown that has almost everybody reaching for the panic button. But Wade Miley saved the day on Sunday by refusing to allow any more runs and the Diamondbacks, comeback kings of 2011 rallied from being down 6-0 to win 6-7.

And the Giants esteemed pitching looked shaky. Lincecum in particular struggled - even I pointed out his loss in velocity. Goldy still owns him too, a storyline I look forward to following with glee.

But the point is that even if they win dirty, this team is going to win. That they’re good enough to do it. That they refuse to be written off. And besides the sheer delight of handing smug Giants their first 0-3 start in decades, that’s what I’m taking away from the series.

I’ve already sprung.

It’s going to be a fantastic season.

This where you get tickets to the bandwagon? One please.

It's slightly unusual to be posting on a baseball blog when the state of Arizona is currently football crazy (I don't know if you've heard, but the Cardinals are in the Super Bowl), but there's been a lot of talk about bandwagoning recently because of it. You know what I say to accusations people only like the Cardinals because they're winning?

So what? That's what I say. So what?

By that definition, I am a bandwagon jumper. Yeah, you heard me. I'm a bandwagon fan. Definition of one, actually. My foray into true baseball fandom began during the 2007 postseason when the Diamondbacks went to the NLCS and the Red Sox won the whole shebang.

In the 2008 season, I watched all but a handful of the Diamonbacks' games on television, saw three games in person at Chase Field and flew across the country to see the Red Sox at Fenway.

So what's so wrong with the bandwagon? The 2007 postseason put the taste of the sport in my mouth, reminded me how it felt to cheer for something. It flipped a switch.

I love the game of baseball. I love it just as much as I would if I'd been following it my whole life. This is my sport so thank goodness for the bandwagon.

If a succesful team brings people to the sport, then I approve. Some of them may discover a passion. Some of them may just remember how it feels to root for a team and they'll look back on that team fondly. Happy memories are never bad, no matter how genuine some people feel they are. People will remember this Cardinals team well and maybe they'll remember sport in general as well. Maybe if they have free time, they'll swing by Chase and catch a Diamondbacks game or check the Cardinals score in the newspaper next year. Anytime a local sports teams win, it's good for all the others, it's good for improving the reputation of Phoenix as a sports town.

I'll never follow football like I follow baseball, but I hope like hell the Cards win. It's never wrong to have a reason to celebrate.

Okay, now that sanctimonius preaching is over, there is baseball on the horizon. Got the Dbacks Hometown Tour and FanFest coming up and Spring Training is on the way. I'm hoping to post some kind of retrospective/preview in the next few weeks.

Rumours of our death have been greatly exaggerated.

You want me to wear what?

You know what I hate about being a baseball chick? The clothes. I've got plans to make the trek up to Chase Field next month and was eagerly anticipating a trip to the team shop. Sure, I've only been doing this baseball fan thing with any regularity for the past couple months, but I'm starting to accumulate a variety of merchandise. I have my Dbacks cap, my tenth anniversary T-shirt (free giveaway night, woohoo!) and my #15 Dan Haren shirt (I love you!). But what about my next trip? Should I splurge on a jersey? Or get another player shirt - appropriately, like his nickname, Conor Jackson calls to me and I'd love to wear his shirt. Debating, I went online to investigate options.

I wanted a Gravity T-shirt but since my Haren shirt is men's I navigated to the women's section online to look for player shirts. And I looked. And looked. And looked. Where were they? I clicked around in other sections, trying to find the shirt I wanted. It doesn't exist. There are no player shirts in women's cuts.

Why the hell not?

The women's clothing section of the Dbacks shop leaves a lot to be desired. First out of of two pages of results for T-shirts only one is in the Diamondbacks signature color, Sedona red. Everything else is black (which ok, is a team color but not as good as red), white or worse, pink.

Why would I want to wear this? It's ugly, barely affiliated with the team and if you're going to a game, why wear pink? A player on the field doesn't know that some random pink shirt is for him.

Is it supposed to be ironic? Is it an ironic T-shirt because omg, girls totally like baseball too, isn't that like, so funny?

No. It's not. I don't have to prove I'm a girl by wearing pink because clearly, there's something off about girls like sports. I don't have to reconcile my feminine side with sports. I can be a perfectly normal girl who enjoys baseball and that means I want to wear my team colors in shirts that are designed to fit me correctly.

I'll still pick up Gravity's shirt and like my other Dbacks gear, resign myself to the fact that I have to purchase it in a men's cut (the website describes it as an "authentic chest cut" but I don't know who's chest it authentically fits, cause it ain't mine), making it small in the chest and baggy in the shoulder and waist. It won't fit right but what choice do I have? I've got money to spend and I want to support my team and my favorite players. Just don't expect me to wear pink.