I feel like this is a fairly momentous occasion in the history of this website, as it marks the first time I’ve written about Major League Baseball. This summer, when school’s out, I’ll be able to go to more Big League games, but this will likely be the only article about one until late June.

On 29 March, I had the pleasure of watching Opening Day at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California. I had planned to just go to one of the Bay Bridge Series games during spring break, but it turned out that Opening Day was really early this year, so I decided to do that instead. I had never been to a real Opening Day before, only team home openers, so I was quite excited. I went with my partner Elizabeth, and she had never been to the Coliseum before. I also got her an Eephus League scorebook because she didn’t have a scorebook. She really liked it, I think.

Many people dislike the Coliseum for many reasons, but I’ve always loved going to games there. It has a certain quirky charm to it that newer, state of the art, $357 million stadiums don’t have. The fans are also great. Maybe I’m biased; I’m not going to try to hide it, I love the Oakland Athletics with all of my heart. I remember the first game I went to there, 22 September 2011. I cut class and went with my best friend Dillon and his dad, Ron. Ron’s a cool guy; that day he signed up to be a designated driver so he could get a free Coke, then after he got it cut the yellow wristband off and got a beer. I remember I forgot my scorebook, so Ron pulled the scorecard out of the program, and when I opened it there was a poster of Scott Hatteberg after hitting the walk-off home run to win the twentieth consecutive game in 2002, and it still hangs on my wall. I kept score with a black ballpoint pen and I gave the scorecard to Dillon after the game. It was the last home game of the season, and we got free hot dogs. The A’s came from behind to beat the defending AL champion Texas Rangers, and I got to see one of my favorites, Andrew Bailey, get the save.

Up until that point in my life, Oakland had been the “other” Northern California team to me, with the world champion Giants being my favorite. On 21 September, I may have told you that this was something that would never change. However, on 22 September, all it really took was one visit to the magical, quirky castle that stands as the last to house both baseball and football within its walls, one glance at the Athletics’ “World Series Champions” and the Raiders’ “Commitment to Excellence” banners on either side of the entrance, and one team with a $66 million payroll and a losing record for me to fall in love with the Coliseum, the green and gold, and Oakland Athletics baseball.

The game itself was really good. Lots of offense on both sides, and five home runs total. The A’s hit back to back home runs, on consecutive pitches, in the fifth; Khris Davis and Matt Olson. It felt good to see that, especially when Davis made them pay for the two walks. It was right on with typical Oakland “Green Collar” Baseball; clawing your way back into a ballgame, never saying die, and the time-honored “get two on, hit a bomb” strategy that the A’s often have when they’re at their best. We also got a lemonade in the fifth that was really good. It was a good half inning all around.

This was Shohei Ohtani’s Major League debut, and he also got his first hit in his first at-bat. He also had a particularly ugly strikeout in the eleventh. A guy sitting near us had a Japanese-league jersey on, but it wasn’t Ohtani. It was from the Yokohama Bay Stars, I believe. Later on, I saw a guy with a Team Japan jersey with Ohtani’s name on the back. Mike Trout went 0-for-6, making this the worst game of his career, on paper at least. The Athletics’ Matt Chapman went 0-for-4, and at the time of publishing is the only game thus far where he did not get a hit this season.

This was also an extra-inning walk-off victory, which is always a delight, and another thing that had me hopeful for the season ahead. It was reminiscent of the 2012 season, the first season in which I really followed the Athletics seriously, in which the A’s had 14 walk-off victories in the regular season and one in Game 4 of the ALDS. Kind of a tangent, but that was a magical season and I just might have to write a whole post about that team in the future. Marcus Semien was the hero, helped in part by the fact that Los Angeles brought in a fifth infielder. I really don’t believe that his ball to center that won the game would have been deep enough to score the runner from third. Regardless, Oakland won the ballgame, so no complaints here.

This is probably my favorite scorecard I’ve posted so far, and maybe my favorite I’ve ever done. It’s the first extra-inning game, too. I don’t do the box score for the batters when the game spills over into those last four columns. Sorry if that disappoints anyone.

I also scored the game on 31 March while watching it on television. I don’t do this very often, and I think I did this mostly to remedy that I wasn’t able to go to the game the night before where they had festivities for the 50th Anniversary Team, and that I wouldn’t be able to go to the game the next day where Ohtani would pitch in the MLB for the first time. Nothing particularly interesting about this one. I’ve elected to change all my abbreviations to two letters and numbers for ones that will be written on the basepaths to make it more uniform and less cluttered. This is the first one that shows a new abbreviation: “HB” for “hit batsman” instead of “HBP” for “hit by pitch.” It was also relief pitcher Luke Bard’s MLB debut. A rough game for an A’s fan to watch.

As always, these scorecards are from the Bob Carpenter Scorebook fan edition. I would highly recommend it if you’re in the market for a new scorebook. The next entry should be a pretty fun one. Hopefully it will go out tomorrow.