The Astros finally get to come home after a rough 1st week on the road in which the Astros went 2-5 and find themselves in the cellar, 3.5 games back of the Cardinals.  The Astros start their home series with a 3 game series against those 1st place Cardinals who have started the season off 5-1 and are tied with the Brewers with the same record. 

If you are one of the lucky ones that either were off today, or took off of work to enjoy some of the opening day festivities(or even luckier to attend the game), there is a lot of stuff to do today.  I just hope you got tickets to the game already, because they are sold out!

Schedule of Events

• 11:00 AM - 4:00PM - Opening Day Street Festival at Halliburton Place : free to the public
• 12:30PM - 1:00PM - Pep Rally featuring Drayton McLane, Milo Hamilton, Cecil Cooper, Miguel Tejada, Jose Valverde, Michael Bourn, Jose Cruz Jr and Geoff Blum
• 3:00PM - Gates Open
• 5:30PM - Pregame ceremonies including the 2007 5A state champion Cy Fair High School baseball team holding an over-sized American Flag as well as the US Navy Lap Frogs parachuting into Minute Maid Park and presenting GM Ed Wade with the first-pitch ball, which he will use to throw to Cecil Cooper to get this thing started.

Lance, being Lance...

Lance Berkman, who strained a neck muscle running the bases in Chicago, would like to play Monday, but the fact that it's the home opener adds no extra incentive. For him, it's just another day at the ballpark. "For the players, it's more of a pain in the rear, [because of] the [pregame] ceremonies and stuff like that," he said. "It's really just another game. We've already played seven of them by that point, so it's not like any great extra incentive." ...

Cooper doesn't feel the same way.

"You wait a week, so there's a little buildup," he said. 'We're excited to get home, to have the fans yelling and cheering for us." .

If any of you are able to attend the game and take pictures, feel free to e-mail them to me... I'll host them and display them on the CFB.