HAPPY OPENING DAY: Let Us Kindly Revisit The Last Time Spencer Strider And The Braves Visited Citizen's Bank Park

Smitty3/29/2024 2:45 PM

Happy Opening Day, South Philly! After a washout yesterday at the Bank (and Citi Field - A+ scheduling putting home openers in the Northeastern US again, Rob!), The Fightins are back in action vs. the Atlanta Braves. Yup. Those Bravos that featured some of the best teams in The Show as well as one of, if not the greatest offense in MLB HISTORY last season...yet subsequently got bumped out of the postseason by the lowly Wildcard peasant Phillies. TWICE in two years. Oh well. Let's play the hits! Or in the Braves case, lack thereof! GOT 'EM!

And that was that. Yup. Nothing else to talk about after that series last season. Nope. That's all she wrote. As for Stirder, yeah he got shelled in the NLDS. Again. But he's still one of the best pitchers in the game and will always have my respect for being the only member of the Braves team/staff/fanbase to not be an extreme baby back biatch after losing to the Phillies:

And now we honor an Barstool Philly tradition we've been doing for the past decade or so…how many Opening Day lineups for the Phillies can you name from the past 30 years?

Ah, Sporcle. Giver of Mailtime. Savoir of the Cube. I remember the days when I used to spend hours "working" on naming all of the Best Picture Winners from the Oscars or all the NFL MVP's since 1950. Well, the Phillies are BACK today and Lord Ace Wheeler is taking the mound on Opening Day for the first time (Aaron Nola deservingly had that honor the previous 5 years) But you know who had the distinction of starting Opening Day for The Fightins just 3 short years ago? Adam Heasley. Yup. A starting center fielder whose entire existence is already forgotten by most of the Delaware Valley. Fun times. Maybe.

!!!SPOILERS OF THE QUIZ AHEAD!!!

So, like every year I channel my uber baseball nerd and tested my Phils die-hard nugget on naming as many Opening Day starters for the Phillies.. Sure, I had obvious brain farts on Aaron Rowand/Rico Brogna/Hunter Pence (inexcusable on all fronts), Grady Sizemore (lol), and Cedric Hunter (still not sure that person ever existed let alone started an Opening Day in the show). But then again there were names like Andy Ashby and Marlon Anderson that I wouldn't like to randomly enter my mind ever again. Overall, a decent time had by all.

So go ahead. If you really want to mail it in for the day try this fun quiz of naming every opening day starter for the Phillies from 1994-2024. If anything it'll make you go, "Wes Helms? Oh yeah. I remember him. Fuck that guy".