With opening day on tap (my apologies to the Mets and Cardinals), it's time to begin the annual exercise of channel-flipping and note-taking. Of course, I'm also looking at it from the angle of determining which of my predictions for the season will take hold and which fly out the window.

You have your ups and downs during the day, but you must stand back and remind yourself that it is a long, long season.

Over the course of the day, I'll be noting some of the highs and lows, with some random and trivial observations to be included, of course.

Reed Johnson swiped a bag on Jeremy Bonderman in the first inning and scored on a Lyle Overbay double.  Bonderman struggled terribly in the first inning before settling down. It appeared that he over-threw in the first inning and that his fastball was flat.

Carl Crawford singled and swiped a bag on a pitch that Jorge Posada failed to handle properly.

Is it me, or does Frank Thomas look odd in a Blue Jays uniform?

On a first-inning popup off of the bat of Ty Wigginton, Alex Rodriguez received his first jeers of the new year. Rodriguez drifted on the ball and midjudged it. It fell harmlessly in foul territory and Pavano later recorded a groundout, but it's certainly not how Rodriguez wanted to start the year.

Rodriguez then came up with two runners on and struck out on a fastball away from Scott Kazmir, prompting a chorus of boos from the sell-out crowd that cheered him as he walked to the plate.

Kazmir threw 33 pitches in the first inning.