Well, the Major League Baseball season had a totally awesome North American Opening Night tonight. First game at Nationals Park. Washington leads throughout. Washington blows the lead in the top of the ninth, as Jon Rauch uncorks a two-out wild pitch, allowing Gregor Blanco to score the tying run. 2-2 entering the bottom of the ninth. Pete Moylan of the Braves gets the first two Nationals out and then Ryan Zimmerman, destined to be the best Nationals player of the first decade of existence, blasts a solo shot to straightaway center field for a 3-2 Washington win. Awesome. And the first of 64 for the Nationals this year. Sweet.

I've prepared amply for Opening Day, for the second straight year.

Today's haul from the grocery store, in preparation for tomorrow's festivities:

- Two eight packs all-beef franks (one Koegel's which are fantastic, and one Ballpark Fat-Free, which were on sale, potentially because they're being discontinued)
- One eight-pack whole wheat hot dog buns
- One small canister, poppy seeds
- One jar, sport peppers
- One large jar, kosher dill pickles
- One small jar, sweet relish
- One large white onion

You'll notice that I purchased two packages of hot dogs, ostensibly for a single evening of baseball enjoyment. The lesson here: I like hot dogs.

I already had celery salt and mustard. I do not like tomatoes on my hot dogs, so I chose not to purchase.

In addition, I also purchased, due to Rud family tradition:
- Two packages Twizzlers (one traditional pack of strawberry vines, one Wild Berry variety Pull 'N Peels. An impulse buy, and I'm excited)
- One package traditional five-color Starburst

Finally, another addition, this one a personal "tradition" carried out at at least one Tigers game in 2006:
- One package Voortman's Wafers. I accidentally purchased only vanilla ones, rather than the chocolate-strawberry-vanilla variety pack but, still, very exciting

And finally, finally, I found no Old Style. I will settle for a 12-pack of Bud Select. My fridge currently also includes Miller High Life. So I'm in a pretty good way.

Sports Illustrated has about the coolest cover ever for its 2008 Baseball Preview issue. It's a meta-cover, with Ryan Braun, Ryan Zimmerman, Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz, Troy Tulowitzki, and Chris Young (ed: Actually, the D-Back is Justin Upton, which really shafts the totally awesome Chris Young) all looking at their "future" SI covers. A badass concept, I think.

Let's make quick picks:
AL West: Anaheim
AL Central: Detroit
AL East: Boston
AL Wild Card: Cleveland

NL West: Arizona
NL Central: Chicago
NL East: Philadelphia
NL Wild Card: Colorado

World Series: Boston over Chicago
Eh, why not?

AL MVP: David Ortiz
AL Cy Young: Jonathan Papelbon

NL MVP: Chase Utley
NL Cy Young: Carlos Zambrano

I think the Cubs are good. I wish Alexei Ramirez were available in Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball right now. Otherwise, somebody might nab 'em when I'm at work on Monday.

Go Cubs Go.