Opening Day recap

The Phillies and Red Sox are off, so here's our day-old recap of Opening Day.

The festivities began with the 2009 National Champions parading into the stadium with the Cardinal O'Hara High School Marching Band, Budweiser Clydesdales, Phillie Phanatic and Roy Halladay leading the way. Charlie Manuel ran the pennant up the flagpole. ... The Philadelphia Boys Choir and Chorale sang Philadelphia and America the Beautiful with a giant flag (we'll have more on that another day) on the field. ... Six members of the Navy's Leap Frog unit parachuted onto the field. Earlier, their jet did a close flyby of the stadium, startling Christine and me. ... The cast of the Lion King sang the National Anthem. I didn't like it. ... Herb Magee, coach of Philadelphia University's basketball team, tossed the first pitch.

God Bless America was performed by 4TROOPS, a quartet of veterans who have a CD coming out this spring. Not bad. ... The Phanatic debuted Lady Pha Pha, but we'll talk more about that tomorrow.

Game notes: Cole Hamels, who is not getting any slack from some fans, struggled but hung on for a win. Many fans are ready to run him out of town; I wonder if they would give up their memories of 2008 in order to do so. ... We had no clue why Jimmy Rollins wasn't playing. He was announced, but then I saw Juan Castro's picture on the scoreboard during warm-ups. They incorrectly listed him at second base, adding to the confusion. The Phillies won't officially DL J-Roll until tomorrow. Castro had a big double, an RBI and a run in the Phillies' decisive five-run 5th inning.

Jason Marquis began by no-hitting the Phillies through 3 1/3 innings until Christine said, "How about we break up this no-hitter?" immediately before Placido Polanco singled. Later, she also correctly predicted a big base hit to left field for Ryan Howard. ... Good day for the bullpen - Chad Durbin, Jose Contreras, Danys Baez and Ryan Madson went 3 1/3 innings, giving up just a hit with three strikeouts.

Observations from the stands: We arrived before our parking lot opened, causing some traffic tie-ups as cars lined the street waiting for the gates to open. The parking attendant wouldn't let me back in. I was annoyed, but it wasn't a problem getting out after the game. ... I tried the Old Philly hot dog - not bad. The crusty roll was phenomenal. After I purchased it, somebody asked to see what it looked like and asked whether I had it before. Later, an usher asked me how the new dog tasted. ... Before the game, Phan-O-Vision froze for several minutes on a boy and man sitting right behind us. The cameraman ignored the guy's request to pan over to us.

A woman in front of us wore a goofy plastic Phillies tiara with baseball earrings. "I'm already getting so much attention in this hat," she told her friend. ... Centerfielder Nyjer Morgan played along when fans taunted "You suck Morgan." We wondered why they didn't stick to their custom of taunting the opposing left fielder. Christine guessed that Josh Willingham might be too hard to chant. ... There was lots of security called to our section. We didn't know why, but one time we saw a guy carrying a broom and sawdust, as if he were an elementary school janitor cleaning up some puke. ... We sat in "foul pole" seats. The view wasn't great, but the seats were strategically located so we were able to watch the last pitch and beat the majority of the crowd out of the park without delay. There was absolutely no traffic, and we were home eating dinner before 7 p.m., including the time we lost because Chick-Fil-A didn't have salads prepared.

Antiquated Phillies shirts: Cliff Lee, Larry Bowa, Bobby Abreu, Pat Burrell, Aaron Rowand, Brett Myers and Pedro Martinez, although that may not be antiquated for long if you believe everything you read.

In a nutshell: Just a really pleasant day at the ballpark.