What a wonderful day.

What a crappy game.

Carol left the house at 9am and got to the park at 5 to 10, before the parking lots opened. We weren't the only ones. I've never seen lines so long before the gates opened to the park, even during the World Series - All because people wanted a Replica Championship Ring, given out to the first 20,000 fans. We must have been - at most - 100th in line to get into the Stadium Club entrance. The ran out of Rings right after us and a near riot almost started.

I can't tell you how comfortable it felt to walk back into the park again. And the park looked great. Even though our section of seats are still the old blue seats (they're that way from the dugouts to the outfield), seeing the rest of the park in dark green seats really makes the park look great.

Before the game, members of the Front Office, dressed in tuxedos (with tails) and gloves, carried onto the field the Championship Rings on silver platters. One by one, coaches, then players, were called to the center of the field to receive their rings from Commissioner Bud Selig, Owner Jerry Reinsdorf and General Manager Kenny Williams. Guys that are now playing for other teams flew in, just to receive their rings. the most memorable - Aaron Rowand. He got a huge ovation from the fans, who let him know he's missed. If anyone on that field had tears in their eyes, it was him - not to mention tears in the stands when he took the field.

The whole ceremony was so special to watch and to be there to be part of. Almost made up for not getting tickets to opening Night. Almost.

Marty Casey and the Lovehammers, fresh from touring with INXS, got a chance to play one song before the game started. Guess which one it was? Yep, "Trees".

We found a brand new food being sold at the park - it's only from a stand behind the plate - freshly made caramel corn and cheese corn (complete with mixes of both). WONDERFUL!

The game itself was terrible. Sure, Jim Thome hit another home run, but Freddie Garcia had nothing on his pitches and got rocked. He looked terrible. Our defense was poor and - at times - felt Keystone Cop-like.

It was painful to sit through and watch.

On top of it all, Gene Honda wasn't there - Tom Shaer did P.A. duties, and Nancy Faust had brought her old organ to the patk, and it sounded totally different compared to what she's sounded like in the past.

Also, we have new parking passes this year, which make us park in the lots north (A, B, C, & G) of the park instead of south (E, F & L). Well, it actually took us an hour to get out of the neighborhood. We're going to have to pay attention to traffic patterns around the park after the game.

Speaking of after the game, we went over to Janie & Gary's for a wonderful dinner.

(Boxscore)