How's This for Openers?

Two delays rained down on Wrigley before the Brewers offense did likewise on Opening Day today, but from the Cubs’ perspective, most of the story could be told in first-pitches.

Carlos Zambrano threw his first for a strike, as well as the next four. The first pitch Kosuke Fukudome saw bounced off the warning track and up against the wall for a double. Carlos Marmol’s first pitch scored him an inning-ending strikeout. Kerry Wood’s first pitch hit Rickie Weeks in the back. Bob Howry broke the rhythm, as Craig Counsell waited for a second pitch before his leadoff double, which would eventually lead to the winning run.

But Zambrano looked good, and so did Marmol. And Fukudome’s double merely set the stage for a 3-for-3 debut with a walk, capped by a dramatic three-run game-tying ninth-inning homer.

Rain delays, extra innings and Cub losses are nothing we haven’t seen before, but it was a good day for oddities. In case seeing a pitcher record a strikeout on one pitch wasn’t weird enough, Fukudome was picked off second base by a catcher. Not an assist from a catcher, a catcher. Mark DeRosa was already sliding into second when Jason Kendall ran him down in no man’s land, like a deer in the headlights between second and third. Kendall, incidentally, opened the season batting ninth behind Ben Sheets.

And the Cubs threw the shift on Prince Fielder, with shortstop Ryan Theriot positioned just to the weird side behind second base and DeRosa on the edge of the outfield grass over Derrek Lee’s right shoulder. It backfired twice, turning one routine double-play grounder into a 4-3 fielder’s choice because nobody was covering second, and later finding a hole for what would have been another routine grounder to second.

An entertaining game even if it didn't turn out as we hoped, but win or lose it's nice to have that first game on the books. We made it through another winter folks, and it's going to be an exciting summer.