Here's the thing about Opening Day-- it's like Christmas Day for baseball fans. You wake up and get to unwrap the shiny new pitcher, shiny new manager, and shiny new lineup. And this Opening Day? It was like getting socks. Ugly, too short, socks that you would never wear in a million years. That’s the kind of feeling a 7-0 shutout loss will do to you.

Now, it's only one game in a long, voluminous season, but this game had to give Giants fans a little upset stomach if only because of the fear that this game was a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Future. Zito didn't pitch well, they had no offense, and the bullpen just plain old sucked. That's pretty much the worst-case scenario for this team. Or, as Bruce Jenkins said in his fab live blog of the game:

The Giants didn't hit. At important times, they didn't field. Barry Zito was hardly shelled, but he took the loss. The bullpen was multi-dimensional bad. Barry Bonds didn't homer.

Looking back, then, on the day's top 5 highlights:

1. The ovation for Willie McCovey, hobbling out on crutches, before the game.

2. The ovation for Willie Mays.

3. Other nice moments involving the old-timers.

4. The very appropriate pregame tribute to the late Harmon Burns, one of the team's most generous financial contributors over the years.

Seems that's only four items. Can't really think of a fifth.