Yesterday I took the trek up the 5 freeway (which was worse then usual, if you can imagine such a thing) to Anaheim for the Angels home opener against the Seattle Mariners. Opening day at Angels Stadium was exciting from many angles. First, I wanted to see the improvements to the stadium itself. Also there were a ton of pre-game events including the awarding of the "Gold Glove" to Bengie Molina and the "Silver Slugger" to Garret Anderson. And finally, the game itself was nothing to sneeze at.

Of all the great improvements Arte Moreno has made to this team, the new scoreboards may be my favorite (sorry Vladimir, it's true). Gone is the old "million points of light" board in right, replaced with what appears one huge Sony Trinitron. A second board has been placed in left field and another circles the stadium at the club level. These new boards are not only sharper and more colorful- they have at least doubled the amount of information that is displayed for each hitter. Now along with the old stand-bys, we get OBP and SLG- very nice!

The entire presentation of the game is now improved as well. Gone are the clip-art graphics that were once displayed on the boards to rile up fans. They have been replaced with professional graphics that- get this- actually has something to do with baseball and the Angels. That's right- no more old lady telling us to "get loud", and no more green monster ("Hey man, Fenway is about 3,000 miles that-a-way!") walking to first base. It may seem trivial, but it really helps the atmosphere of the park.

The pre-game festivities were so numerous I don't think I have time to go over them all. It started with a very well produced retrospective on the Angels, taking us from a news report on "the newly created Los Angeles Angels" up to the World Series title. That kind of stuff is my kryptonite, it always gets to me. It was followed by the distributing of a few awards won by the Angels the previous year, including Molina's "Gold Glove", Anderson's "Silver Slugger", Donnelly's MLB.com "Set-up Man of the Year" (oh, how prestigious), and Troy Percival's "Rolaids Relief Man Award." Pretty boring stuff, unless you get all hot and bothered when seeing corporate execs.

The introductions included about two minutes of applause for Scott Spiezio, which was far more then was called for in my opinion. I did hear a few boos when Ramon Ortiz was introduced, but other then that it was a fairly subdued introduction (probably due in part to the fact that this is actually the teams third opening day). Introductions were followed by the anthem as sung by Brian McKnight, accompanied by some guy on a sax-ma-phone, followed by a fly over by two F-18's. I'm just a sucker for that kind of stuff!

Finally the game started. There were a ton of story lines to follow in this one. I was most interested in seeing Escobar's second start of the season, but there was also Bengie Molina's return from injury and Vladimir Guererro and Troy Glaus' succumbing to injury. And who can forget Speizio's return to Anaheim? Tim Salmon got his first start in right, and Shane Halter got his second start at 3rd (where he struggled in Texas).

Escobar clearly didn't have his good stuff, but he battled like a pro, going six innings and keeping the Angels in the game. Pinero got the start for Seattle and was just awful, yet remained unscathed through much of the game. After four innings the Angels trailed 4-0.

This seems like as good a place as any to talk about the Speizio tribute. In the middle of the first the scoreboards showed Speizio's famous at bat against Felix Rodriguez in the 2002 World Series, which is widely recognized as "the greatest homerun in Angels history." After it was done playing (to huge applause) the screen flashed "Thank you Scott," and got a shot of him in the Seattle dugout. Scott was clearly uncomfortable with this, but was convinced by his new teammates to give a tip of the cap to the fans.

Let me make this clear: I don't dislike Scott Spiezio. I think he did fine work for the Angels in the absence of a real first baseman. But I also don't love Scott for hitting one homerun, or getting epicly hot in the 2002 playoffs. No matter what his playoff numbers were the fact remains- he's not an everyday player, and if you can replace him with a better player you do it. Scott's a good guy and a decent ballplayer, but he wasn't solely responsible for the championship like many fans give him credit for. That said, I still gave the guy his "props" with a standing-o.

Back to the game. Vlad started the Angel's comeback with a laser over the left-center wall in the 5th, scoring two. By this time it was clear to me that Pineiro was holding his game together with tape, and the next inning the Angels finished him off with another two-run shot, this one off the bat of Bengie Molina. The game was now tied after 6.

Scot Shields struggled in the 7th, but kept the M's off the board. Then, in the bottom of the inning, the rally we all knew was coming came. Erstad and Guererro both reached on Soriono, and Bob Melvin brought in the lefty Myers to pitch to Anderson. Anderson flew out, and yet another pitching change followed. Julio Mateo's first pitched was lined for a double off the bat of Jose Guillen, plating Erstad and Guererro. Guillen reached third on the throw to the plate, and later scored on a Salmon sac fly. 7-4 Angels.

That was all the bullpen would need. Rodriguez struggled somewhat in the 8th, as he allowed his first run of the season, but he got the lead to Percival. Percival then went 1-2-3 in the ninth for his second save of the season, and a big come-from-behind win for the Halos.