Opening Day

Friday was Opening Day for the 2012 San Francisco Giants. The Boys of Summer opened in Phoenix. After an encouraging Spring, the Giants looked good losing to the Diamondbacks. Two time Cy Young starter Tim Lincecum got shelled in the first inning, before buckling down in the second.

The Giants got to D-Backs starter Ian Kennedy in the 5th and 6th, but Giants errors and some more D-Backs fireworks sealed the Giants fate 5-4

There was much to celebrate for Giants' fans.

The first thing is, nobody got hurt! The Giants got 11 hits. Finally the Ian Kennedy puzzle that's bedeviled the Giants for two seasons is showing signs of getting solved.

Buster Posey played all nine innings behind the plate for the first time since his season ending ankle injury last May, and went 2 for 4 in the batter's box. One error was charged to Buster when he mishandled a weirdly spinning chopper that bounced in front of the plate and spun out of his glove. No harm no foul IMHO Buster is good as new.

The Giants play seven of their first nine games in the afternoon. This pleases this old baseball fan to no end! I still feel the sting from when I first heard the news that Chicago's Wrigley Field was installing lights for night games...the last Major League Yard to yield to Television's Will. Sure, baseball looks better under the lights on TV, but the deep shadows thrown by the  mid-afternoon Sun have been part and parcel of baseball for more than a century. Losing a high pop-up in the Sun is part of the drama, and the players are less likely to be injured in the heat of the day...think Midwest in August...Dog Days, anyone?

The Reno Aces beat the Colorado Springs Sky Sox 9-5 in Reno tonight...this time without the snowfall...

I did errands before the 4PM game. Wonder of wonders, my favorite Mexican Produce Market finally opened their store in the same town as the Ancestral Digs! The poor folks have flown the "Opening Soon" banner since November! Talking to the locals in line, it seems the County had a long list of hoops they had to jump through. I picked up some asparagus for half the Safeway price, asparagus that was a few days fresher, I might ad...perfect button crimini mushrooms were .99/lb, not $3.99/lb, and they had beautiful bunches of organic Golden Beets! Did I mention the Champagne Grapes? WooHoo!

I had a mind to have white fish for dinner. We've been doing a lot of chicken this week save for the Osso Buco from the slow cooker. I fancied some ahi sushi appetizers...barring that some hamachi, with some white fish done piccata-style for the main...I was thinking sole, preferably petrale.

The local Safeway was pretty proud of their fish. All their sole and snapper was $9.99/lb and up! I headed east and Lunardi's was prouder still ($29.99/lb for sashimi-grade ahi? Are you kidding me? That's Biblical Pride right there)...So I headed to Concord to the Mexican Produce Market Mothership (where they feature a fish market with live Dungeness Crab and Lobsters)

I did a quick reconnaissance of the aisles. Prices were exactly the same as in the more toney shopping center location by the Ancestral Digs, though the more crowded Mothership had many more choices, especially Asian and Indian produce. I struck out on a large eggplant, though...

In the back is the fish market. It was plugged with shoppers stocking up on Lenten Fare. I gazed at the crab and lobsters while the outnumbered fish mongers filled orders. Finally I got up to the cases. Oh My God, they had beautiful big snapper fillets for $3.49/lb! Here's my  white fish in spades! I bought twice as much as dinner required. The other two fillets will freeze up fine and hit the table next week.

Now that I think about it, Safeway did have a bunch of nice looking Standing Rib Roasts in the meat case for $5.99/lb. These have been going for $8.99/lb for a while now down here...I don't want to do a goose for Easter, after all...

Bone Appétit