The 2007 baseball season gets underway tonight, although Monday is still opening day in my mind. But the Mets visit the Cardinals on ESPN, and the game counts. It's a rematch of last year's NLCS. Glavine faced Jeff Weaver twice in that series, but tonight he draws Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter. Over the last three seasons, Carpenter's ERA ranks third in the majors behind Clemens and Santana (300 IP minimum). He hasn't faced the Mets much in the regular season, however, since joining the Cardinals. His one start against the men from Queens resulted in seven shutout innings and seven strikeouts in 2005.

Tom Glavine ranks 16th on that same ERA list, posting a 3.66 ERA over that same three-year time span. He starts this season 10 wins shy of 300, trying to become the third of his generation to reach that plateau.

Glavine's facing Pujols resulted in mixed success for the pitcher. Albert banged out nine hits in twenty at bats vs. Tom, but all fell for singles. Not a great performance, but he minimized the damage as much as possible.

It's a perfect matchup for opening night, the World Champions vs. the league runner up. Enjoy!