In Case You Hadn't Noticed

Thom Brennaman would like you to know that it is cold outside today and also that it was not cold outside yesterday. For those of you not living in the eastern half of the US, I suppose that could be news to you, but I'm assuming the vast majority of the people who watched the game tonight probably already know that it's snowing, even though it was almost 80 yesterday.

While Thom talked about the weather there was an actual game going on. Bronson Arroyo's 2007 debut was not quite as clean and shiny as his 2006 debut, but it wasn't too bad. Sure, it ended in a 4-1 loss to the Cubs, but who wants to play baseball when it's 20 degrees and snowing anyway? Perhaps things would have gone better for Arroyo if he had worn long sleeves. He gave up 8 hits and 4 earned runs through 7 plus innings. He did strike out 9, though. Mike Stanton and Todd Coffey combined their efforts for the 8th inning, giving up a hit and no runs. Jared Burton and Victor Santos covered the 9th. Burton's major league debut was not exactly stellar. While he gave up no hits, he walked all three batters he faced. I'd be a nervous wreck, too, though, so no judgment here.

The offense was apparently frozen tonight, scoring just 1 run on 3 hits. The lone RBI goes to none other than Adam Dunn, who probably would have added a few more home runs to his record tonight had the weather been a bit more baseball-like. Or at least that's what Thom said on TV. I really don't know much about how temperature affects a ball's ability to travel, but that's why I'm not a physicist.

On a completely different note, did you know that Jeff Conine is an accomplished racquetball player? If you didn't, now you do.