The game of baseball is bigger than any one person can see, even one who is playing the game. Two cases in point: Sunday's game, Dodgers @ Diamondbacks, and Monday's game, Giants @ Dodgers.

Sunday: top of the second, Dodgers batting, one out, runners at second and third. Batter slaps the ball back toward the pitcher. Runner at third, leading off, breaks for home at the crack of the bat. Pitcher catches the ball on the fly for the second out and throws to the second baseman, who misses the base. Runner from third steps on home plate; second baseman tags the runner at second before he can get back to the base. That's the third out. Diamondbacks congratulate themselves on making the double play and leave the field. Dodgers bench coach Bob Schaefer told manager Joe Torre that the run should count, because the Diamondbacks didn't make an appeal play to third. Torre went out and talked to the umpires, who ruled that the run counted.

If the Diamondbacks had made the appeal play – pitcher gets the ball, steps on the pitcher's plate, steps off and throws the ball to the third baseman, who then touches the base, the runner would have been called out for not tagging up. It would have been the fourth out of the inning, technically a triple play since all three of the final outs resulted from a single swing of the bat. But when the Diamondbacks left the field they lost the opportunity to make the appeal. The run counted.

Hardly anybody in the park – players, fans, broadcasters, writers – knew what had happened. Some of 'em still don't know, I'm sure.

Monday: Dodgers vs. Giants, the Dodgers home opener. Orlando Hudson hits for the cycle: a single, double, triple and homerun all in the same game. First time a Dodger has done it since 1970.

"I had no idea," Hudson said. "I didn't know until the other guys in the dugout told me!"

"It's not a game for kids, is it?" asked Cecilia.