Non-league FC United of Manchester, making their debut in the first round, provided the first shock of this year’s FA Cup as they dumped Rochdale out of the competition with a 3-2 victory at Spotland on Friday night.

FC United, formed in the wake of Malcolm Glazer’s takeover of Manchester United in 2005 and wholly owned by their fans, currently sit 15th in the Evo-Stik Premier Division, 95 league places below League 1 Rochdale.

The Reds could easily have been a goal down inside a minute, as some flat-footed defending presented the home side with a great chance to take the lead. A few minutes later, the visitors were arguably lucky to not concede a penalty for handball, with referee Geoff Eltringham waving away Rochdale’s protests.

However as the half wore on, United began to assert themselves, even beginning to run sections of the play. A 0-0 scoreline looked likely at half-time, which would have certainly suited the visitors more than the hosts.

However, in the 42nd minute, wide-man Jerome Wright played through Nicky Platt who found himself one-on-one with Rochdale goalkeeper Josh Lillis. Platt kept his nerve and deftly chipped it over him and into the back of the net to put the hosts into an unlikely lead.

United had sold their allocation of 3,200 tickets by Monday afternoon, and the goal sparked wild scenes in the packed Wilbutts Lane stand, with some fans spilling on to the pitch during the celebrations.

Four minutes into the second half, the noise level from the away fans went up another notch. Ben Deegan—a window manufacturer by day—held up the ball against a pair of Rochdale defenders before receiving a return ball down the left from Mike Norton.

Deegan’s ball into the box was cleared to Jake Cottrell 20 yards out, who drove the ball hard and high into the Rochdale goal beyond the outstretched hand of the diving Lillis.

The 22-year-old Cottrell was plucked from Sunday League football by FC United manager Karl Marginson last season, and went to the same school as another, slightly more famous, midfield goalscorer – Paul Scholes.

It took Rochdale just three minutes to get back into the game. United conceded a soft free-kick about 25 yards out. The ball in found its way to an unmarked Anthony Elding who easily nodded past goalkeeper Sam Ashton.

A nervy period of the game then ensued, with Rochdale spurning a couple of good chances to snatch an equaliser. United left-back Richard Battersby was forced to clear a shot off the line with 20 minutes to go.

It was another set-piece which again proved to be the undoing of the non-league side. A corner from the right was met by the head of Craig Dawson, who drilled a header into the goal, to tie the game with 12 minutes to go.

The Dale clearly smelt blood, with manager Keith Hill signalling to fans behind the dugout that he expected a 5-2 victory for his men. For their part, the visitors hung on doggedly following the equaliser, with a replay certainly on the minds of both teams.

Then the tie was turned completely on its head.

Deep into the fourth minute of injury time, United gained possession of the visitors inside their own half. Jerome Wright took the ball down the outside, before playing an innocuous-looking ball ahead of striker Mike Norton.

With a Dale defender covering, and keeper Lillis coming, it looked to pose no danger. Norton refused to give up on it, and as Lillis went down on the ball, it came free. The non-league veteran nicked it away from the keeper, before slotting it into the empty net, wheeling away with his arms aloft.

There was an element of controversy about the goal, as replays showed Norton may have knocked the ball out of the goalkeeper’s arms. However, Dale’s protests were waved away by the officials, with Lillis receiving a yellow card for his troubles.

There was barely time for the restart, with the final whistle sparking joyous scenes, with the FC United players being carried off the pitch on the shoulders of their own supporters, with few actually being able to believe what had happened just seconds earlier.

FC United now, remarkably, find themselves as the first team in the hat for the Second Round draw on Sunday. The result will have big implications for the club off the pitch as well as on it.

The club are currently raising funds to build a 5,000-capacity community use stadium in Newton Heath – where Manchester United began life more than 130 years ago.

As we enter the final week of the regular season, most of the playoff contenders have already been decided, but the races in the AL East and NL West are still too close to call.

The teams at the top of both divisions are currently separated by the narrowest of margins, with Tampa Bay clinging to a half-game lead over the Yankees in the AL East, and the San Francisco Giants holding an identical lead over San Diego in the NL West.

The Padres are certainly the surprise package of the season to most observers, having been the consensus pick to finish bottom of the division back in April. Had it not been for a ten game losing streak at the beginning of September, they may well even have been out of sight of the Giants by this point.

However, the inability of either team to forge a lead has set things up for a grandstand finish; the Padres travel to San Francisco on Friday for a three-game series to close out the season and ultimately decide who will finish atop the division.

Both teams making the playoffs is still a distinct possibility; whoever loses out on the division pennant is currently in pole position for the NL Wild Card. Nonetheless, they are going to have to finish strongly, with the Atlanta Braves—looking for their first playoff appearance since 2005—breathing down their necks in that race.

The situation in the AL East is slightly clearer. Both the Rays and the Yankees are virtually assured a playoff berth already; one more victory for each will guarantee that they will be the AL Wild Card if they lose out on the division.

Whoever wins the division stands a good chance of finishing with the best win-loss record in baseball, giving them home-field advantage for the divisional and championship series. For both teams, this would be a major plus; New York with their fiercely partisan crowd, Tampa Bay with oddities created by the domed roof of their Tropicana Field home.

The Rays certainly have the easier run-in on paper, hosting Baltimore for three games, before heading out to Kansas City for a final four-game series. Those teams are both currently bottom of their respective divisions. Conversely, the Yankees must travel to fierce rivals Boston for a three-game series to close out the season.

Elsewhere in the AL, pre-season favourites Minnesota have already locked up the Central, christening their new Target Field home with playoff baseball in its inaugural year. Another surprise package, the Texas Rangers will represent the AL West, reaching the playoffs for the first time since 1999, and just the fourth time in their history. They will be hoping to do better this time, having been eliminated in the first round in all three previous appearances.

The playoff drought has been even longer for the Cincinnati Reds, who will cement their place atop the NL Central with one more victory – bringing playoff baseball to the banks of the Ohio River for the first time since 1995. Completing the playoff picture is the Philadelphia Phillies, who having already locked up the NL East, now have their sights firmly set on a third World Series appearance in as many years.

There has been much scrutiny of last week’s leaked financial statements of six Major League clubs, but it is the Florida Marlins who have really come under the spotlight.

The Marlins were publicly rebuked by Major League Baseball and the players’ union back in January over concerns that revenue sharing payments received by the team were not going towards increasing the side’s payroll.

Following this slap on the wrist, the Marlins agreed that they would work to increase payroll in the coming three seasons, seemingly bringing the matter to a close. However, the disclosure of these documents is proving to be a real inconvenience to Marlins executives, who are coming under heavy fire over the discrepancies between their public statements, and what was being booked on the—until-now private—balance sheet.

The records show that the Marlins, over the course of 2008-09, made a profit of almost $50m. During that period, the team received $92m in revenue sharing payments from MLB, whilst spending less than $75m on player salaries.

That essentially means that before the team sold a single ticket for Sun Life Stadium, they had already managed to pocket a near-$20m profit on the revenue sharing payments—money that they are obliged to spend for the purpose of improving the team. Despite protestations from the club that some of the money is going towards player development, many of the larger teams are unhappy at this confirmation of what they had already suspected.

Though bothersome, the baseball impact of these revelations is a relatively simple public relations issue for the Marlins to solve. What has become more troublesome is their new stadium development in Miami’s Little Havana district.

Intimations of a potential relocation have surrounded the Marlins for a number of years, fuelled by the club themselves, and by MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, unless a new stadium deal was completed. In 2008, Miami-Dade County agreed to fund the majority of a new ballpark complex. With a total cost of $634m, the County is borrowing $409m to provide the majority of funding for the development, with the Marlins contributing just $155m.

In response to speculation over finances, team president David Samson has consistently denied that the team has been making significant profits. His line has been that the revenue sharing payments simply allow the Marlins to break even. This was a key plank in their negotiations with Miami-Dade officials; that they did not have the money to fund a new stadium, and without significant financial assistance from the County, they would have to seriously consider relocation.

Miami-Dade officials repeatedly requested access to financial statements from the team, but were rebuffed on each occasion. Yet, despite never seeing such information, they still agreed to the funding package. Now, elected officials and taxpayers—who did not have the opportunity to vote on the funding proposals in a referendum—are growing increasingly angry as details of the deal are analysed.

When all of the loans taken out are finally paid off, over a period of 40 years, the estimated cost to Miami-Dade taxpayers is expected to reach an eye-watering $2.4bn. Meanwhile, once the Marlins move into the new stadium, they will be reaping almost all the benefits of increased revenues from ticket sales and in-stadium concessions, with very little going back to the county.

Compounding the situation is the revelation in the leaked documents that $16m was taken out of the club by owner Jeffrey Loria—a multi-millionaire art dealer—during the 2008-2009 period. Samson’s claims that this money was a repayment of a loan that Loria had extended to the club are unlikely to attract much sympathy from either fans or Miami-Dade residents.

With a number of local officials—some clearly implying that the Marlins lied to them—now looking at ways of redressing the balance of liability between the county and the club over the new stadium, this is a story which doesn’t look likely to go away quickly for the Marlins.

Ten days into the tournament and the standard of the football has finally picked up, but the level of UK television coverage is getting even worse.

ITV started the ball rolling during the England-USA game where viewers on ITV HD, instead of seeing Steven Gerrard slide the ball home past Tim Howard, were treated to an advertisement for sponsors Hyundai.

This was especially embarrassing for the broadcaster who managed to do exactly the same thing during the Merseyside derby last year, cutting to a commercial break when Dan Gosling scored Everton’s extra-time winner.

However, such a faux pas simply masks the real elephant in the room when it comes to this year’s World Cup coverage; the shambolic standard of punditry that viewers are having to put up with.

After his much-vaunted channel switch, it has already become apparent that Adrian Chiles’ MOTD2 shtick really does not translate well to a live broadcast where his job to press ‘star footballing guests’ for their insights.

However it is difficult to single out either channel on this point, when the standard has been equally poor.

The number of times viewers have heard phrases such as “we don’t know a great deal about this lot” from the respective panels is quite laughable from broadcasters who are supposed to be doing a professional job of covering an event that only occurs once every four years.

The likes of Shearer, Southgate, McCarthy and co. are being paid good money to offer insight and analysis, but day after day viewers are treated to little more than the usual tired clichés.

An admission of not having much knowledge about the sides playing is a sign that they should perhaps be doing a little homework before the matches so that they do have something meaningful to say.

Not being able to speak with authority on who is the best candidate to fill the left-back position for North Korea in a 4-5-1 formation is fair enough, but not being able to even name players in a team in England’s group?

What compounds the situation is that, as a panel, they seem to revel in their own ignorance of the situation; a sign that this is not just an isolated issue, but that they are all in the same boat. When one panellist does appear to show some knowledge, the other members invariably make some kind of joke about it.

This was the case when Danny Baker joined the BBC studio following the evening match earlier in the week. Often overlooked in discussions listing the top football pundits, Baker is someone who manages to combine humour with genuine knowledge of the game.

In the studio, he managed to speak more sense in one minute than we have had from certain pundits in one week. Unsurprisingly, his insight was met by jokes from the rest of the panel, led by Shearer.

Along with Baker, Roy Hodgson is another notable exception, often saying things worth listening to. However, those two aside, there are not many more worth mention.

For a tournament like the World Cup, viewers deserve good coverage. Is even a cursory glance at the tournament media guide really too much to ask of those being paid to entertain and inform us?

Steven Strasburg lived up to the hype when he made his much-awaited Major League debut on Tuesday night in front of a capacity crowd at Washington DC’s Nationals Park.

Facing the Pittsburgh Pirates, Strasburg picked up his first Major League victory, pitching seven innings, giving up just two runs on four hits with no walks. The figure that really made the headlines though was his 14 strikeouts.

The 21-year-old struck-out each member of the Bucs starting line-up at least once, and induced the crowd into an avalanche of noise as he struck-out the final seven batters he faced, before coming out of the game after the seventh.

His only real mistake came in the fourth inning when Delwyn Young took a change-up down the middle just over the right-field fence for a two-run home run.

This subdued the crowd slightly, not helped by the Nationals leaving runners on base. There was a sense for a while that Strasburg may have been on course for a tough loss, but after Adam Dunn and Josh Willingham put the Nationals ahead with a pair of back-to-back home runs, the noise level went up another notch.

Some of the stuff he was throwing at times was quite remarkable. Anyone who managed to see any of his minor league starts this season had an idea of what he was capable of, but seeing him replicate it at the Major League level in such a way was something special.

Strasburg lit up the radar gun at 101mph at times with his fastball, and threw 97-98mph with ease throughout his stint. His change-up reached over 90mph, and the break on his curve-ball was simply unhittable, regularly breaking more than a foot – the definition of a ‘knee-buckler’.

His outing lasted 95 pitched, 65 of which were strikes. Tyler Clippard replaced Strasburg for the eighth, before Matt Capps locked up the save in the ninth.

Strasburg was the first overall pick in the 2009 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. After extended negotiations, and much speculation over whether he would or wouldn’t sign, Strasburg signed a record-breaking four-year $15.1m deal with the Nationals.

Following the game last night, after receiving three traditional ‘shaving cream pies’ to the face during his live TV interview, Strasburg was presented with an over-sized silver Elvis-style wig, given by the team to the player they decide has been the day’s best player. The Nationals won by a scoreline of 5–2.

With the first overall pick in Monday night’s Major League Baseball draft, the Washington Nationals selected Bryce Harper, a catcher out of the College of Southern Nevada.

Harper was the consensus number one pick prior to the draft, and has been making headlines on and off the field for well over a year.

His reputation on the field has preceded him for a number of years now, dating back to 2005, when he was talked of as being the best 12-year-old hitter in the country. Back then, he was already playing for the top junior ‘travel teams’ in tournaments across the country.

Harper came to national prominence last year after he featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, where he was described as ‘the LeBron James of baseball’. He made further national headlines after enacting his plan to leave high school two years early and go to junior college, so that he would be eligible for this year’s draft, at the age of 17.

The Nevada native has become known for his hitting; his 500ft+ home run in a showcase at Tropicana Field has been shown on television numerous times since, and he has compiled record numbers in his sole season at CSN.

Catcher has been his position at college, but there was some added intrigue when he was announced as an outfielder by Commissioner Selig when the pick was made by the Nationals. The positional designation is the choice of the player.

This is perhaps a sign that he is determined to reach the Major League level as quickly as he possibly can. All things being equal it shouldn’t take him as long to get up to standard as an outfielder, as it will to be a Major League ready catcher, a position with a longer learning curve.

In an interview with the MLB Network, Harper was clearly excited about moving one step closer to achieving his dream of playing professional baseball, an ambition he said he has held since he was seven years old. He also stated that he was willing to play wherever the Nationals need him.

With the second pick, the Pittsburgh Pirates took the top high school pitching prospect Jameson Taillon, out of The Woodlands HS in Texas.

A pair of shortstops went third and fourth, with high-schooler Manny Machado going to the Orioles, and Christian Colon of Cal State – Fullerton to the Kansas City Royals.

The top college pitching prospect went to the Cleveland Indians, who took left-hander Drew Pomeranz out of Ole Miss with the fifth pick. He was closely followed by Barret Loux, a right-hander out of Texas A&M, who was taken by the Arizona Diamondbacks with the sixth pick.

The New York Mets took another righty, Matt Harvey out of the University of North Carolina with the seventh pick.

The top ten was rounded out with Delino DeShields Jr (CF) going eighth to the Astros, Karsten Whitson (RHP) ninth to the Padres, and Michael Choice (CF) out of the University of Texas going to the Oakland Athletics with the tenth pick.

As for Harper, the decision on what position he will play is ultimately up to the Nationals – as will the decision as to just how big his payday will be. Whether it will be bigger than Steven Strasburg’s last year remains to be seen.

Strasburg made his Major League debut for the Nationals on Tuesday night, almost exactly a year to the day since he was drafted and looked every bit as good as promised. If Harper turns out even nearly is good, the Nats have a bright future ahead.

Replays showed Donald being a stride short of first base when the ball got there

Controversy erupted in Detroit on Wednesday night as Armando Galarraga was robbed of a perfect game by what is already being described by many as one of the ‘worst umpiring calls of all-time’.

Galarraga had retired the first 26 Cleveland batters in order, and was on the brink of history as he faced Indians number 9 hitter Jason Donald. Donald took a called strike, and a ball outside, before grounding the 1-1 pitch to the right side.

First baseman Miguel Cabrera went to his right to field the ball and threw to Galarraga who had sprinted over to cover first. On first glance, the ball looked to have easily beaten Donald to the bag, however umpire Jim Joyce immediately signalled the runner safe. Subsequent replays revealed just how bad that call was.

Galarraga went on to get the next batter, Trevor Crowe, to ground-out to finish the game, but there were angry scenes immediately afterwards. Tigers players flooded the field having seen the replay showing Donald being a stride short of first base when the ball got there.

In a phone call with Detroit radio station The Ticket after the game, an obviously upset Joyce admitted he had blown the call, and refused to make excuses. He said was in a great position to see the play, describing it as the “biggest call of [his] career” and that he had simply “kicked the **** out of the call.”

It later emerged that Joyce had visited the Tigers clubhouse after the game, and tearfully apologised to Galarraga and the Tigers team. Galarraga, who had taken the initial incident on the field in extraordinarily good grace, is said to have hugged Joyce and told him he forgave him for the mistake.

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig does have the power to overturn Joyce’s call but it does not seem likely at this stage. Such a decision would set a major precedent in the game, and there is an argument that a reversal of the call would not have a material effect on the outcome of Wednesday night’s game, and therefore it is an easy trade off to right the wrong.

The flip side, however, is that if it is acceptable to reverse a play that had no bearing on the outcome of a game, then surely we must look at the results of controversial calls which have had a material effect on the outcome of games?

Baseball has been the most reluctant of the major US sports to embrace the use of video replays with it being introduced for the first in August 2008 and only in the limited circumstances of determining whether borderline home run calls were fair or foul, cleared the fence or if there was spectator interference.

The use of instant replays is a very divisive topic amongst fans. Traditionalists are generally against expansion of the system and concerns have already been expressed that it would further slow down games, something which has already come under scrutiny this season.

In a press statement, however, Selig said: “While the human element has always been an integral part of baseball, it is vital that mistakes on the field be addressed. Given last night’s call and other recent events, I will examine our umpiring system, the expanded use of instant replay and all other related features.”

A real positive that has come out of Wednesday night’s events is that it has given an opportunity for the good side of baseball to be seen. After the initial anger on the field, the conciliatory gestures made by all parties have been a credit to the game.

After the public apology from Jim Joyce himself, Tigers catcher Gerald Laird was apologetic about his actions after the game, and manager Jim Leyland was extremely gracious in talking about Joyce, and his 22-year career as a Major League umpire.

Prior to Joyce’s next game at Thursday’s Tigers-Indians clash, Galarraga went out to home plate to hand over the line-up card to Joyce—a duty almost always carried out by the manager—where the pair shook hands to applause from the crowd in Comerica Park. Leyland described it as ‘a day for Detroit to shine.’ Baseball did, too.

In our season previews we picked out the National League West as being an exciting one to watch, and thus far it has proved to be the case.

However it has been the San Diego Padres, the consensus pick to finish in the basement, who are leading the way as June approaches.

The Padres sit in first place in the West in possession of the best record in the National League at 28-18. As you might predict from a team playing in PETCO Park, the Padres success has not been built on hitting prowess.

In most of the key hitting categories, you will find the Padres towards the bottom of the list. In average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and home runs, they are 14th of 16 teams in the National League. Hometown hero Adrian Gonzalez does merit a mention here, with 9 home runs, and a near .400 OBP thus far.

On the other hand, they are playing their version of small-ball very well. They are coming up with plenty of sacrifice hits, staying out of the double play, and they lead the Majors in stolen bases. They are not scoring a lot of runs, but they are scoring enough.

Of course, it is much easier to score ‘enough’ runs when your pitching has been as good as it has for the Padres over the first two months of the season. They have given up the fewest runs of any team in the Majors, with a 2.85 staff ERA, including nine shutouts.

Jon Garland has led the way with his 2.10 ERA, but the rest of the rotation have been extremely solid, with Clayton Richard, Mat Latos and Wade LeBlanc all posting sub-4 ERAs. Even the worst of the bunch, Kevin Correia, comes in at 4.03.

The Padres really are a perfect example of a team playing to its strengths. Whether they can maintain this pace remains to be seen, but the division is certainly set up for any team to make a break for the title with any kind of good run.

Around the rest of the division, things also remain interesting.

Ubaldo Jimenez continued his amazing season on Wednesday night, winning his ninth decision of the year, his ERA dropping to 0.88. The victory over the struggling Diamondbacks was their fifth straight win, and it is hard to not get that sense that if the Rockies can unite behind Jimenez in what is so far a historically-good season, they could really get on a roll.

Despite all their off-field problems, the Dodgers sit in second place, a couple of games back on the Padres. Further north, the San Francisco Giants are also above .500 and certainly well-placed to make a run at the division. The basement is currently occupied by the Arizona Diamondbacks, and it’s not difficult to see why; a 5.81 staff ERA, good enough for dead last amongst the 30 Major League teams.

Star winter addition to their starting rotation, Edwin Jackson, is currently sat on a 6.28 earned run average, and the bullpen is getting crushed from top to bottom. They are not out of it yet—they have actually scored more runs than any other NL team—but unless the pitching starts to click soon, it won’t be long until they are.

Finally another division to keep an eye on will be the East division, which is shaping up to provide some great entertainment. After Wednesday night’s games, all five teams are within two wins of each other.

Even perennial strugglers Washington are sitting pretty at 24-24—and that is before phenom Stephen Strasburg has even been called up. He is expected to get the nod in time to make his Major League debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates for a June 8th—10th series—just under a year since he was drafted by the Nats.

The Phillies hold on to a narrow one game lead, after being swept by the Mets in New York last night – failing to score a single run in the entire three game series.

Ubaldo Jimenez threw the first no-hitter in Colorado Rockies history on Saturday night at Atlanta’s Turner field.

Jimenez took 128 pitches to accomplish the feat, and was pushed all the way to the last, having to face Chippers Jones and Brian McCann in the bottom of the ninth.

The 26-year-old got Brian McCann on a simple groundout to second to end the game. Earlier in the game, he had to rely on a much tougher play from one of his team-mates to keep the feat intact.

In shades of the play DeWayne Wise made to preserve Mark Buehrle’s perfect game last July, centre-fielder Dexter Fowler made a spectacular diving play to rob Troy Glaus of a hit in the bottom of the seventh.

What was perhaps most remarkable about the performance was the demonstration of Jimenez’s arm strength and durability. He struggled with his control somewhat early on, walking six batters, as his fastball touched 100mph on occasion. However he settled down, and even into the ninth that heater was still reaching 98mph.

The achievement now leaves just three Major League teams without a no-hitter in their record books – the Rays, Padres and the New York Mets.

The Mets themselves were also involved in a noteworthy game on Saturday night, beating the Cardinals 2-1 in a game spanning almost seven hours, and 20 innings.

Neither team scored a run until the 19th inning, using 19 pitchers between them, including two position players taking to the mound for the Cards. One of them – Joe Mather, who had not pitched competitively since high school – took the loss, as Francisco Rodriguez picked up the win after blowing a save in the bottom of the 19th.

After Jeff Francouer put the Mets ahead in the top of the frame, scoring Jose Reyes on a sacrifice fly, Rodriguez came out to pitch the bottom half. He walked Ryan Ludwick, who was subsequently thrown out trying to steal second base. This proved to be a big tactical error, as Albert Pujols ripped a double, which would probably have scored Ludwick anyway.

Pujols eventually came around to score on a Molina single to tie the game at 1-1. After scoring in the previous frame, Reyes put the Mets back into the lead with a sac fly of his own to score Angel Pagan. Mike Pelfry, usually found starting games, picked up the first save of his career.

Finally, the ever-impressive Tim Lincecum had yet another game to remember of his short career, as the Giants defeated the Dodgers 9-0. Lincecum pitched 6 scoreless innings, but was equally impressive with the bat, notching three hits, and three RBIs. So far this season, Lincecum has hit more RBIs than he has given up earned runs, with a minuscule 0.90 ERA.

After the Red Sox and Yankees got us off to a great start with a back and forth opener on Sunday night — the Sox eventually triumphing 9-7 — Easter Monday got the season underway for real, with a full slate of games.

Opening Day is a time of excitement for fans of every team across North America, where all are equal, and they can dream of what the coming 162 games may hold. Of course, there must be a winner and a loser in every game, so while some are now full of expectation for the summer ahead, others are already wondering if they are in for a long season.

The biggest story of Opening Day came during Atlanta’s 16-5 rout of the Chicago Cubs. Jason Heyward, widely considered to be the top young prospect in the game, hit a home-run to deep right-centre field in his very first Major League at-bat. Not a bad way to announce your arrival to The Show.

Roy Halladay introduced himself to the Phillies in style, striking out nine in his first win in Philadelphia colours, as they defeated the Nationals by a score of 11-1 in Washington DC. President Obama threw out the ceremonial first pitch – a ball – to maintain a Presidential tradition that started 100 years ago. As Placido Polanco hit a grand slam, finishing with 6 RBIs, Nationals fans had little else to cheer, and may be in for another long year.

Another perennial struggler, the Pittsburgh Pirates had a brighter Opening Day, as they defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers. Garrett Jones homered in his first two at-bats en-route to an 11-5 victory for Pittsburgh at PNC Park.

For some players, they simply started where they left off last year. Albert Pujols crushed two homers in Cincinnati as the Cardinals beat the Reds 11-6. Reigning NL Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum struck out seven through seven shutout innings as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Astros 5-2 in Houston.

AL Cy Young Zack Greinke had a quality start, giving up just one run in six innings against Detroit, but as was so often the case last year, it was wasted as the Kansas City bullpen imploded, capped by a six-run seventh inning. The Tigers won 8-4.

In Texas, the Blue Jays’ Shaun Marcum – who didn’t pitch at all in 2009 – took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Unfortunately he blew it, and by the time the inning was over, the score was tied at 3. The Rangers tied the game in the ninth, before the wonderfully-named Jarrod Saltalamacchia gave them the walk-off victory.

In a battle of young aces in Milwaukee, the Colorado’s Ubaldo Jiminez outdueled Yovani Gallardo. Carlos Gonzalez had a four-hit day, as the Rockies came out on top 5-3. In Oakland, Felix Hernandez gave the Mariners a great start, which their bullpen proceeded to waste. However their offense got to A’s closer, and reigning AL Rookie Of The Year, Andrew Bailey in the ninth to win it 5-3.

Stephen Drew hit an inside-the-park home run in Phoenix, as the Diamondbacks beat the Padres 6-3. Drew’s long blast hit the overhanging porch high in centre-field, and took a big carom away from Tony Gwynn Jr, as Drew hared round the bases to score. Some might say Drew got a lucky bounce, but the man himself wasn’t bothered about that, as he told MLB.com that he’d never even seen an inside-the-parker in person, let alone hit one.

In New York, the Mets got off to a winning start, defeating divisional rivals Florida 7-1. David Wright started things off, hitting a two-run shot off Marlins ace Josh Johnson in the first inning. On the West coast, the Angels defeated the Minnesota Twins 6-3, buoyed by new singing Hideki Matsui’s first home run in his Los Angeles debut.

Finally, Mark Buehrle pulled off the flashiest defensive play of the day, and perhaps a contender for play of the year; not something you can often say of a pitcher.

In the fifth inning as US Cellular Field, rookie Cleveland catcher Lou Marson lined a shot back at the mound. Buehrle stuck his foot out to stop the ball, sending it rolling towards the first base line. He then sprinted over to the ball, and, with his back to first base, flipped it through his legs with his glove to Paul Konerko on first, the ball just beating Marson’s foot to the bag.

Indians right-fielder Shin Soo Choo described it as: “unbelievable…the best play I’ve ever seen”. Buehrle, along with the accolades, also picked up the win as the White Sox shutout the Tribe 6-0.