I hope you know me well enough to know what my first thought about today's game will be: We got the good camera angle! The only time you see it at Fenway if you live in NESN land is when it's a national game that's not on NESN. Ah, slightly-off-to-the-side view, how I've missed thee. It's just so much better than the head-on robot cam view. With the batter and pitcher appearing to be next to each other instead of on top of one another, you can zoom closer. And in HD, it's even better. I hope fans watched today and said "hmmm, centerfield camera, did you get a haircut? New glasses?" No, it's the view from the good ol' camera well, which NESN used to use but for some reason felt the need to switch to the directly-behind-mound robot cam. It's not like we can't tell balls/strikes being just off to the side....

And we got to see a shutout win too. Clay was great, coming out after a two-hour "rest" (he kept itching simulated innings down below while it rained) and continuing to mow 'em down. Hill, Albers, Bard, and Pap threw the last four. 4-0 win.

Some wackiness from the game:

Remember how I saw Ken Rosenthal on game two of the season in a bow tie? And how I wondered why he wore it for game two but not opening day? Well today I found out he wears a bow tie "every week" for charities. Since game two was a Saturday game, that explains why he specifically wore it that day.

Stockton was okay today, but he did have one rough moment when he thought the top of the first was over, despite that a safe call had been made. He was thisclose to sending it to commercial, having described a 1-2-3 inning, when he finally realized the runner was safe.

Has Fox always used the same music for football and baseball? They kept playing that "giddy up giddy up giddy up let's go"-sounding NFL theme. Even Kim was like, "this is cold weather music."

At one point, Youk was thrown out stealing second, but the pitch was ball four. Joe West called Youk out, who started going to the dugout, before seeing that it was a walk. He stood around, off the bag, and the fielder tagged Youk again. West, still with his back to home plate, and walking back toward the outfield (where he'd stand if no one was on base) again gave an out call, completely oblivious. But Youk was finally allowed to stay.

The ticket-buying page changed. You get that seating chart that shows you the view from the section, and the verification page is a weird pop-up, and.... it's just different. And they're still putting out Monster Seats on there, one homestand at a time. They moved them from the regular section to the premium section down below, but, for example, you can still get two Monsters together for tomorrow. Take your mom! (Hey why is the processing fee double for premium seats?)

Got to see the end of the Verlander no-hitter on MLB Network. That station is great (for me) for two things. That, and old-school stuff, like old games and shows about past seasons and stuff.