Opening Day - APRIL 5th

Cubs (0-0) @ Reds (0-0)
REDS WIN ON CEDENO DOUBLE
Cesar Cedeno's 2-run double in the bottom of the 7th inning off of Chicago starter Ferguson Jenkins, caps a Cincy comeback in the 1982 home opener at Riverfront Stadium.

WP - Hume (1-0)
LP - Jenkins (0-1)
Final Score : Reds 6, Cubs 5



Royals (0-0) @ Orioles (0-0)
MARTINEZ QUIETS ROYALS BATS
Baltimore starter, Dennis Martinez, kept the 1980 champs in check today, holding them to only a single run on 9 hits. Martinez, who's suffered through some injuries the past season or so, is said to have the most talent on this O's pitching staff. Can he continue to shine ?

WP - D. Martinez (1-0)
LP - Leonard (0-1)
Final Score : Orioles 2, Royals 1

Injury Report

Beginning the 1982 regular season, the following players were missing for most, if not all, of spring training for their corresponding teams :

ATLANTA :
Longtime Brave ace Phil Niekro will be out until the end of April with what is said to be "family troubles".

PHILADELPHIA :
Pete Rose is missing thanks to a bad back. (I can't say that I'm disappointed seeing as I despised Rose as a player. The way he would bounce the ball as high as he could on the turf after he made the third out of an inning, drove me nuts.)

Marty Bystrom is recovering from off-season shoulder surgery and is not slated to return until, at the earliest, mid-August. Screwballing/screwball lefty reliever Tug McGraw is still recovering from off-season elbow surgery.

PITTSBURGH :
Right-hander Jim Bibby has pitched very little this past Spring because of a sore shoulder. John Candelaria, who suffered nerve damage in his left bicep in a cold, rainy game in St. Louis last May, will not be risked in cold games this season, stated manager Chuck Tanner.

LOS ANGELES :
Jerry Reuss has bone chips in his foot, but club trainers have stated that the chips will not bother his pitching at all.
And, everybody in Dodgertown is breathing a monumental sigh of relief now that Fernando has ended his holdout and signed a new contract.

SAN DIEGO :
Chris Welsh suffered a fracture of his left foot on March 22nd, and is out until mid to late April.

HOUSTON :
The only question mark for Al Rosen's Astros, coming out of spring training, is Mike Ivie. Ivie, who is still trying to deal with yet more emotional problems, all stemming from his recuperation two years ago after a hunting knife accident, is now firmly entrenched behind starter Art Howe. While the Houston lineup could really use Ivie's power, his whining they don't need. All despite the fact that Ivie had a very strong spring.

BALTIMORE :
Ken Singleton is battling a strained Achilles tendon, resulting in Gary Roenicke possibly seeing more playing time in right field with Singleton being played at DH, more and more.

BOSTON :
Chuck Rainey will miss his first few starts, returning probably by mid-April, because of a cut suffered on his right-index finger when a toilet door slammed on his pitching hand in the clubhouse at Winter Haven.

CLEVELAND :
Bert Blyleven has arrived to camp with a sore elbow, something he's picked up in an off-season snowball fight with his kids (?!?!). Blyleven has stated that despite the elbow, he will start the opening game in Milwaukee against the Brewers. How effective he will be, remains to be seen. As well recent acquisition Bake McBride, counted on to start in right field for the Tribe, is battling sore knees.

Many observers are confused as to how Von Hayes is being handled in Cleveland's spring training. Being called the Tribe's best prospect in 10 years, manager Dave Garcia has refused to start Hayes in right field, instead opting for sore-kneed Bake McBride on a regular basis.

TEXAS :
Mickey Rivers will be out until the end of April / beginning of May, recovering from off-season knee surgery. Johnny Grubb, as well, is nursing the pulled hamstring he suffered during a Grapefruit League game against the Yankees. Billy Sample's pulled groin muscle is healed to the point where it is expected he will start in left for manager Don Zimmer, in the opening game at Yankee Stadium.

Memories Are Made Of This

The Summer of 1981 was about many things for me. My Dad was a salesman at the time, and his runs took him all over Eastern Ontario (here in Canada). All during that summer I was allowed to accompany him on his sales runs, boy, did I feel important.

That summer was also about the strike in baseball. Talk about weird. How could there be no baseball during the summer months ? When there *was* baseball, that summer was also about Fernando Valenzuela. A guy that sure didn't look like a great pitcher, he had one doozy of a rookie season for the Dodgers. I still have an old dog-eared July '82 issue of Baseball Digest with him on the front cover.


And most of all, that summer was about what happened in the autumn. Montreal made it to the National League Championship Series and were a game away from making it to the World Series against the Yankees. Until Jim Fanning made that goofy move of bringing in Steve Rogers to face Rick Monday.

Watching the clip on YouTube, years later, the same sad emotions come back. I feel like I'm an 11-year old boy, all over again. I can almost feel myself sitting on the couch in my parents' living room, having rushed home early from school to see the last half of the ballgame.

Well, all past nostalgia aside, this project is all about erasing and obliterating that home run, at least in my own mind. The 1982 season was a season of great, great expectations for Les Expos. The All-Star Game was going to be in Montreal, and heck, the Expos even had AL OLIVER starting at first base ! Having come as close as they did, and having the talent that they did, they were expected to make yet another run for it all, and this time they were supposed to pull it off. But, they didn't.

This is my chance to brush Jim Fanning aside, and to make it right.