Opening Day Observations | The papers supplement their game coverage of the Phils' Opening Day loss to Pittsburgh with lots of sidebars and columns. The Inquirer's Jim Salisbury and the Daily News's Paul Hagen are all over the Jose Mesa angle, with Salisbury, blog-like, spinning off into a loopy meta-analysis involving his clubhouse spat with Mesa last season:

Of course, when it was over, there was only one question to ask.

Jose, are you talking?

Oh, yeah, he was talking. Talking and smiling and joking and enjoying every minute of his revenge. He even shook the hand of a certain scribe with whom he'd had a little dustup back in August.

Joe Table.

Mi amigo.

Both Salisbury and Hagen note the baseball gods' sense of humor regarding Mesa's save; for the record, Shallow Center posted his reference to the baseball gods' yukking it up yesterday.

Elsewhere in the DN, Sam Donnellon seems ready to press the panic button, Marcus Hayes reports that Larry Bowa wants Jim Thome's teammates to help him carry the offensive burden, and Bill Fleischman has an interesting take on Harry Kalas and Chris Wheeler's on-air camaraderie on Opening Day.

In the Inky, Bob Ford, in contrast to Donnellon, agrees with the Phillies that one shouldn't read too much into Monday's loss, Todd Zolecki profiles Pat Burrell's heartening game, and Michael Klein mails in a piece on reader suggestions for a Citizens Bank Park nickname.