Happy Opening Night, St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins Fans!

...and every other baseball fan who has waited for this day since last October.

A lot can happen in one offseason, and the reigning World Champion St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins are a perfect example.

The Marlins are kicking off 2012 with a complete face lift: a new name and a spastic jazzy new logo on their uniforms, a new skipper in Ozzie Guillen along with a few high-end acquisitions like Heath Bell, Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, and Carlos Zambrano, all in a spankin' new, $515 million ballpark. Pretty exciting stuff.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals begin defending their title on Day One of their first season without long-time manager Tony LaRussa and one-time fan favorite Albert Pujols. The team will also have to do without staff ace Chris Carpenter as well for the time being due to nerve irritation in his pitching shoulder, but they've regained Adam Wainwright, who was dearly missed during his Tommy John surgery rehab. They'll have to replace 30-40 home runs in the middle of the order without Pujols, but guys like David Freese, Matt Holiday, and everyday first baseman Lance Berkman are being counted on to do just that.

Play Ball!

Holy crap you guys, it's Opening Night.

Reigning champion Philadelphia Phillies starter Brett Myers will toss the first pitch of the 2009 baseball season tonight, kicking off the opener against the Atlanta Braves at 8:05pm ET. Just look at those eyebrows. He obviously means business.

Derek Lowe will take the hill in the bottom of the first, after being lured away from the Los Angeles Dodgers to the tune of $60 million. The right-hander may be out for revenge after losing Game 1 of the NLCS and getting a no-decision in Game 4. He went 14-11 with a 3.24 ERA last year.

Happy Opening Night!

The Washington Nationals will kick off Opening Night in their spankin' new stadium Sunday evening against the Atlanta Braves.

President Bush will throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the first regular season game played at the 41,000-seat Nationals Park, which is expected to be a hitter's park. That means no more excuses about trouble hitting homers, like at RFK, fellas.

The new ballpark is also the first green stadium, with lots of environmentally-friendly features like high efficiency lighting, low emitting finishes, recycled materials, low-flow plumbing fixtures, and a small fanbase, which means less litter.

Left-hander Odalis Perez got the nod for the Opener while Tim Hudson takes the mound for the Braves at 8:05pm ET.

[Washington Post] | [Nats320]