Gale and I went to the Faux Opening Day last night at Jacobs Field. Joe the Scalper hooked us up with two tickets in 156 for $40 a pop. Not bad. The damn scoreboard did not work for most of the evening, as far as batter, average, balls, strikes, etc. Very frustrating. But we picked up schedule magnets.

New things this year:

In upper right field, there are pennants for each World Series win, each A.L. title, and every other playoff appearance. Uh, not that many.

Beer is now $7.00. But it's a 24-ouncer. I like beer, but on a hot day, geez, that's a lot to drink quickly before it gets warm.

There is a Guinness stand with Guinness and Smithwick's drafts. I believe those were $7.00 a pint.

Grilled hot dogs at each concession stand. Some kosher ones, too. Ours were OK, but back to Rabbi Feldman's stand in left field for grilled onions.

New popcorn. A local brand called Jenny's. Not bad.

The condiment stands now have Kernel Seasonings, my favorite popcorn sprinkly stuff. They had Nacho Cheddar, Butter, and White Cheddar flavors at the location we noticed.

Welcome to the age of technology. You can now send text messages that will appear on the scoreboard. You can also send photos and they are displayed, as well.

There are now hot chocolate vendors and that sells for $3.00 a cup.

Some things remain though, like dissing Casey Blake.

Meal of Links

Saw "The Hoax" today. This was loosely based on Clifford Irving's fake autobiography of Howard Hughes. This was big news in the early 70's because of Hughes. Hughes was such a recluse in those days, but was in the news a lot. Comedians joked about him, and by God, he was a germophobe, had long hair and even longer fingernails it seemed. Or, at least, that's what we are told.

Richard Gere and especially Alfred Molina are good in this, but the story kind of craps out a little at the end. I think Irving was probably a better con in real life, although in this movie he was really good. There are some definite stretches, though it appears. Molina's character was never really coaxed into staying on the project as Irving's partner. They lived in Spain, not New York state. And so on. They threw out something that might be a canard, someone else had printed excerpts of a purported Hughes autobiography at the same time, and I don't recall that. Some of the suggestions the movie proffers about Hughes and Nixon and Watergate seem like a stretch, but may be true. Although I think Irving's conviction date as the same date of the Watergate break-in is purely coincidental, it fuels the fire. But with the rest of the poetic license taken, what sticks in people's minds may be the false stuff. It's a great hoax, one of the more public ones ever, why make it up? Entertaining film, nonetheless. One of the few that sits on the shelf for a while that makes you wonder why that happened.

I gots me a new HD channel, Universal HD. OK, it just popped on yesterday, but "Manhunter" was on and I had to watch the end of it when I got home from the Tribe game. I guess this is the Universal library with a combination of movies, series and sports. Hey, reruns of "The Equalizer"!

Tim Goodman writes about "The Riches". I have hung in there with this show and I like it very much. But he is spot on with his commentary.

Exercise Yard

The 2007 Browns schedule is out and I'm not sure I like it. The first three home games are against divisional foes. Normally that would be good, but remember, we sorta suck. So, we may be out of any divisional tiebreakers one month in. That makes for a lo-o-o-o-o-ong season. Of course, that's why they actually play the games.

Thoughts:

The Browns also opted for the first two exhibition games to be played at home. On consecutive Saturdays. That's a good thing, as Games 3 and 4 have really lost their luster over the years.

Three road games at 4:00 makes for late Bloody Marys.

Five of the first eight games are at home. Probably good to avoid bad weather. But that means five of the LAST eight are on the road. Including two four o'clockers against the Cardinals and Jets.

No holiday conflicts this year.

Visitor

15 Across: Red Serge uniform wearer (7 letters) Answer: Mountie