Baseball Playoffs!

Baseball Season is ready for the post season. I did okay in my prediction but not great, below are my predictions verses the reality.

American League

East
New York Yankees Yes they did as we all knew they would.
Central
Detroit Tigers Because they have the Triple Crown winner and should the MVP Miguel Cabrera. A-MA-ZING!
West
Texas Rangers Unbelieve! The Oakland Athletics beat the Rangers on the final day of the season to win the AL west by 1 game.
Wild Card
Boston Red Sox Move over Boston, move over Tampa Bay The Baltimore Orioles are back from over a decade of sucking ass.
Los Angeles Angels Texas Rangers won't be denied a playoff spot despite the Angels insane rookie Mike Trout

National League
East
Philadelphia Phillies The Phillies had a tumble of a season so our nations capital could have a run at it. The Washington Nationals  will have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. No Strassburg but there is a Harper.
Central
St. Louis Cardinals So Pujols' exit was felt and The Cincinnati Reds won the central. Good arms.
West
San Francisco Giants Called it.
Wild Card
Cincinnati Reds They won the division so the St. Louis Cardinals could once again show up in the Wild Card dress
Atlanta Braves They're doing it for Chipper and because the 90s are back in style

My crazy Prediction will be the San Francisco Giants stifling all bats to meet up with a Baltimore Orioles team that still doesn't know they're supposed to lose 90 games a year. We will have our first orange and black on orange and black series. Halloween fans freak out!

Baseball 2012!!!

Another season is starting and I feel a little more complete.
Most of the media and experts have made their predictions and they all seem to involve the Rangers or Angels going to the World Series which means that the National league is still a bit of an enigma.
The big free agent news in the off season was Albert(hasn't tested positive yet)Pujols, CJ Wilson going to the Angels while Prince Fielder went from the beer and dairy state to the automobile state by signing with the Tigers. Smaller transactions were the Yankees getting more pitching and getting Andy Pettitte to come out of retirement, The Giants got a little more offense which may go a long way if their catcher Buster Posey can bounce back from the broken ankle and hit as good as he's supposed to.

Here are my season predictions

American League

East
New York Yankees
The Yanks always win their division and there's no reason to think they won't do it again. The Rays, the Sox and even the Blue Jays won't pass them by game 162.
Central
Detroit Tigers
They got Prince but are the same team in a weak division. The Royals are supposed to be better and the Twins always seem to surprise but I think Detroit's got it.
West
Texas Rangers 
This is the division everybody is talking about because the Angels got so much better but the Rangers have a very deep line up and may have a stud pitcher in Yu Darvish. The A's will be a little better but a little ain't enough.
Wild Card
Boston Red Sox
They're making their comeback after a crappy finish. They have closer issues and as well as left field and room for improvement at short stop but they will outlast the Rays this year.
Los Angeles Angels
Their two key acquisitions will pay off and they will win more than the Rays and possible the Red Sox. 

National League
East
Philadelphia Phillies
They will repeat as division champs because they are the most complete team. The Braves, the Marlins and the nationals are said to be contenders this year but like the Yankees, the Pilliies will win.
Central
St. Louis Cardinals
Pujols is gone but they have what it takes to go the distance and be better than Cincinnati, Houston, Pittsburg and the Cubs.
West
San Francisco Giants
Pitching, pitching, pitching. The Giants are all about it and with some offensive luck and clutch at bats they will win the 90 games it takes to win the wild, wild NL West. The Diamondbacks won't be better and neither will the Dodgers.
Wild Card
Cincinnati Reds
 In a weak division they will look better than they are and squeek into the playoffs
Atlanta Braves
They're just a little better than the Marlins who don't have enough pitching and better than the Nationals who will be improved next year and they're more together than the Mets. 
 

World Series 2011

The St. Louis Cardinal will be hosting the Texas Rangers in the World Series starting October 19th and at this point I just don't care. Yeah, Texas is big, bad and powerful and seems destined to get their championship after being sacrificed to the arms of the San Francisco Giants last year. The Cardinals will be going for their second World Series victory in five years while making their third appearance in seven. Why does the sports media always seem to count them out from getting into the playoffs? I thought it was a simple.

As horrible as it may seem the teams are reduced to this. A Texas team with this guy as their brightest star.

Josh Hamilton who is a born again Christian who was a party animal throwing away his extremely rare talents, skills and millionaire career with drugs and alcohol. (and questionable women it seems)

There's also a St. Louis team that thought hiring  Mark McGuire as the hitting coach was a smart step. This guy?

Pujols was psyched!

Anyway, I guess in the end I'm pulling for Ron Washington and his Rangers to steam roll the National League team.  Not only does Wash look like the grandfather I always wanted but he reminds me in some ways of gentlemen who inhabit the Tenderloin.

One last thing, who did the Cardinals get Jeff Reardon young again? This year's beard belongs to Jason Motte who grew out his whiskers and became the clone of one of the 80s best relievers.

Jason Motte

Jeff Reardon: The Eliminator

Maybe Brian Wilson has been paying tribute to Reardon as well. Though he's beard apparently has nothing but fastballs beneath it.

Brian Wilson

Go Rnagers!

Baseball 2011: end of the regular season

Damn it! That's sort of what I said when Papelbon's fast ball was hit into the right center gap and the tying run came into score for Baltimore. "Oh No Crawford," is exactly what I said as the next batter flared Papelbon's pitch to Boston's struggling, big money free agent in left field. Just like the rest of his season he couldn't quite come through. Within a minute it seemed like Even Langoria hit his game winning home run against the Yankees to push his Tampa Bay Rays into the playoffs. The Red Sox had a collapse with a pre 2004 quality to it, being up 9 games or something at the beginning of the month and winding up having to win on the final day of the season to win the American League wild card.
The whole month of September it seemed they were down by three runs by the second inning and any lead the Sox could get was wasted by their bullpen in the late innings. My observation was that if 3rd baseman Kevin Youkilis had not been injured, the team's line up would have been able to generate those extra few runs over September that would have won them another game or two and starting if pitcher Clay Buchholz hadn't had his back problems he would have given them a least one quality start making all this a non issue. Nobody said being a Red Sox fan was easy.

The whole last night of the season was crazy and may be remembered for some time as one of the most exciting final days. Four teams (St. Louis, Atlanta, Boston and Tampa Bay) All looking for one more win just to play one more day. Only The Cardinals got their business done easily with a 7-0 rout of the Astros. The Braves choked up a lead in the ninth  and wound up losing to the Phillies in 14 innings; their season was just as ridiculous as the Sox'. Meanwhile down in Tampa the Yankees took a 7-0 lead into the 8th inning and blew it having to play twelve innings with the prevailing Rays. These games could send any fan into therapy.

Anyway below are the final standings and my predictions
American League
East: Yankees (Red Sox)
Central: Tigers (Tigers)
West: Rangers (Angels)
Wild Card: Rays (Yankees)

National League
East: Phillies (Phillies)
Central: Brewers (Brewers)
West: Diamond Backs (Rockies)
Wild Card: Cardinals (Braves)

What will the playoffs bare? I want a Detroit vs. Milwaukee World Series.

Baseball 2011!

Smell that green grass and ignore everything off the field it's time for baseball again! Yes!

Here are my predictable predictions.

American League

East: Boston Red Sox
They added the right guys in Adrian Gozalez and Carl Crawford. In addition the team should be much healthier with Youkilus, Pedroia and Ellsbury all well.
Central: Detroit Tigers
They loom better than the Twins and I think this year they'll eek it out.

West: Los Angeles Angels
After an off year I think they'll return to the top of the Division

Wild Card: New York Yankees
They're still the Yanks and they still win but if they get Pujols at the trade deadline, they win.

National League
East: Philadelphia Philies
They still got the hitting and with Lee, Oswalt, Hamils, Haliday they have one of the best looking starting rotations seen in a long, long time!
Central: Milwaukee Brewers
The seem to be the hot choice for the division and I'm on board, St. Luis seems to be weaker now even with Lance Berkman and Cincinnati doesn't strike me as a team that can repeat in their Div.

West: Colorado Rockies
I hat calling the N.L. West because nobody did anything to improve themselves dramatically and the division never makes any sense. There is no complete package.
Wild Card: Atlanta braves
They got enough to get in but if they fail it will be the Cardnals



While the predictions aren't crazy it is probably best that way. Once again the Western Divisions are curiosities while the Eastern sets are pretty damn solid. Things of interest this season, where will Albert Pujols wind up? Who can pay him, the Yanks? The Dodgers? The Giants? The Red Sox? The Cubs? How will the Orioles do beneath manager Buck Showalter, will they replace Tampa as the team that sucked suddenly being tough? Speaking of which how will Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon do with the Rays? Will there be more no hitters? Will Stephen Strasburg pitch again effectively? Will the Nationals' other big draft Bryce Harper hit in the majors this year or will the world have to wait?

Things remain to be played out and that's why this is exciting, PLAY BALL!

Smell it!

Baseball is on it's way and that means I can be very moody depending how my team does.

So long Sparky

Baseball managing great Sparky Anderson has passed away at 76. He won two world Series with the Cincinnati Reds in 1975 and 1976, a team that is always debated as the top National League team of all time. In 1984 he won the Series with the Detroit Tigers becoming the first manager to ever win a World Series in both leagues. He had a quick hook when it came to taking his pitchers out of the game but that's how baseball is played now.

RIP Sparky

Champions!

A total shocker! The San Francisco Giants are World Series Champions!

They did it with great pitching and timely hitting. They did it with all the right managerial moves. They made the rangers look tired and slow.

Congratulations!

2010 World Series

So my predictions weren't correct, in fact they were dead wrong but I am OK with that. So this year we will have the Texas Rangers facing off with the San Francisco Giants for the baseball championship.
Congratulations to both teams! The Rangers are going into their first World Series ever while the Giants are looking for their first championship since they moved from New York back in the 1950s, longer than the Texas franchise has existed.

The way I see it is this, the Giants can win if their pitching stays sharp continuing to be very hard to score off of. Their hits will come and will probably scrape out between two and four runs a game. the Rangers on the other hand will win if they score more than four runs; there will be no tight games of 9 to 8. Texas has the neutralizer of Cliff lee who should be capable of shutting down the Giants' bats but who knows; they aren't a team that relies on the long ball and every run they get is a miracle so that strategy may still work. Pat the Rangers' starters I recall their being some bullpen problems which could also come into play in the late innings.
So to reiterate, if Texas starts hitting dingers regularly, forget about it, the Rangers will clobber San Francisco but if the Giants maintain it will be very tough. Don't expect Cody Ross to continue his post season power surge and don't expect the Giants pitching to walk three batters intentionally; they're made of tougher stuff than the Yankees as they know they can't rely on a juiced up Cano Home Run, a moon shot by mouth breathing Texiera or a disingenuous round tripper from A-Fraud.
To me this doesn't seem like a Series with a foregone conclusion; it could be combination of Texas tee offs and San Francisco Torture.

Good Luck guys!

American League Championship 2010

The American League will come down to the Western Division champs, the Texas Rangers playing the Wild Card New York Yankees. Both Teams can swat the ball pretty good and both a have a killer number one starter in their pitching rotation. So I would suppose that this series may come down to everything else. Who can be more patient at the plate who's bullpen stays strong.
Will Alex Rodriguez, the recently voted most dishonest man in baseball be able to hit or refrain from some manner of cheating? Can Vladimir Guerrero's knees hold up? Will Cliff Lee continue to toy with Yankees hitters like he did in last year's World Series? Is Andy Pettite healthy?
The biggest modifier is the Yankees experience in the post season; they won it all last year and many of the players have been in the playoffs a dozen times. It's passion versus professionalism.
I'm picking the Yankees in Six.

National League Championship 2010

So we got the formidable Philadelphia Phillies versus the scrappy San Francisco Giants vying for the National league pennant.

Watching the teams play should be a throw back to the lat 1960s when pitching dominating everything, the scores should be low and the dram tight. I expect to see games that have 2-1 finals and are decided withing the first inning or not until after the starter is done, I expect a couple games to be decided by a Phillie's bomb in extra innings, I expect the Giants to score a run or two they shouldn't.
The first game will be a showcase of awesome pitching with National League strikeout king Tim Lincecum and 21 game winner Roy Halladay hopefully bringing their Ace stuff to the mound.

I also expect the the Phillies to win in 5 games due to their tremendous line up, almost all of them can go deep at any time an area which the Giants seem a little anemic. The games will be close and tough.

Baseball Playoffs 2010

So I made some predictions at the end of Spring Training which were not totally correct, let's examine them.

American League Division leaders: Predicted vs. Reality
A.L. East:Yankees/Rays
A.L. Central: Twins/Twins
A.L. West: Rangers/Mariners
A.L. Wild Car: Red Sox/Yankees
Excuses: I fell under the media spell of the Mariners being a good team and that was dumb. The Red Sox should have made it but the whole team became crippled and they just couldn't play through the adversity. The Rangers are a surprise with Vladimir Guerero coming back to life as some sort of undead Designated Hitter. As far as the Twins are concerned they are the best of the Central; they just outplay everybody else. I'm always happy when the Yankees don't finish first and I think it's funny they had to settle for the wild card slot. All that money and all that fame and they came in second simple and plain.


National League Division leaders
N.L. East: Phillies/Phillies
N.L. Central: Cardinals/Reds
N.L. West: Giants/Giants
N.L. Wild Card: Atlanta/Atlanta
Excuses: The Phillies are not to be messed with. The Reds showed crazy tenacity this year and showed me that St. Louis isn't the powerhouse I thought it was. It took until the final day of the regular season for the West and the Wild Card to be settled and that's awesome, sorry San Diego. The Giants' starting pitching is great and their bullpen has been airtight while Atlanta suddenly got real banged up in the end and may not be able to progress through it.


Post Season Predictions:
A.L. Champs: The Rays over The Twins
This may be the year that the Twins beat out the Yankees now that they have a new stadium and home field advantage. The Twins have to remember to keep the peddle down or they will find themselves watching the League Championship from the outside again. The Tampa Bay team will win knowing next year is going to suck!

N.L. Champs: The Phillies over The Giants
While the Giants and Braves series will be good and a showcase for their stud rookies (Buster Posie and Jason Heyward respectively), the Giants look like they can win the short series. The Phillies have too much fire power for anybody, the Reds aren't up to par and the especially Giants despite their awesome pitching staff. Let's face it Oswalt, Hamels and Halliday are three starting pitchers that nobody wants to mess with; their only weak spot is their closer Lidge.


Wolrd Series Champions: Philies back on top over the Rays who play well but are going to be over matched by the seasoned fellows from the city of brotherly love.

Congrats Ichiro

 So on September 23rd Ichiro Suzuki got his 200th hit of the season making 10 straight 200+ hit seasons! Only Pete Rose has had 10 200 hit seasons but he never did it more than three seasons in a row. Seeing as Ichiro played much of career in Japan and is 36 it highly unlikely that he will play in the major leagues long enough to get to the 4,200 hit mark and probably won't be able to get 3,000 hits as he needs 770 which would mean at least 4 more very good seasons or 3 record breaking ones but who knows? It's possible with all the training and conditioning players incorporate these days he may play until he's 47 and pile up another 2,000 knocks. Sadly he is on a team which has nobody to drive him in to score runs so he hasn't been able to get to the 100 run mark for the past two seasons. Even though his stolen bases are up which puts him in scoring position it's unlikely he'll score more than 80 times this year. Regardless of that stat he is still a hall of famer in my book,

Closers and themes

So I watch baseball and I listen to rock n' roll music and when the two come to together it's nice for me. I've been listening lately to walk up music that players have when they go up to bat and typically it's either some hip hop or metal machoness which is fine but what really appreciate are the songs chosen for the team's closing pitcher. Some examples:

Rob Nen: "Hells Bells" by AC/DC; it's ominous almost mysterious deep toll of church bells seeming informing the opposing team that they're dead.

Mariano Rivera and Billy Wagner: "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. It's evil sounding and powerful. I guess it says that they're going to be putting the other team to sleep.

John Rocker: "I Wanna' Rock" by Twisted Sister. He was so racist the band asked him not to play this song which unfortunately is a great energetic anthem that can really get a crowd into the situation.

Greg Gagne: "Welcome To The Jungle" by Guns N' Roses. This is a wicked beginning as if to tell the batters stepping up to the plate that they are entering a whole new ferocious realm of pitching.

J.J. Putz: "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC; it works well on an energizing level but he should really start hitting more batters if he wants it to be intimidating.

Johnathan Papelbon: "Shipping Up To Boston" by The Dropkick Murpheys. It anouces that there is a battle going on it is very territorial, the visiting team is not home and they are going to be beat by the Red Sox. If Papelbon ever leaves Boston I can't see him using this song as his theme music in another city so this piece may just become the team's song whenever the closer comes in.

There are some others but these are the best. I would use Slayer's, "Raining Blood", how evil is that, batters would decline their chance to bat feeling that they were about to be pitched a great ball of evil fire which would consume them as it boomed across the plate. I would be the best closer ever . . . this is assuming I had a 100mph fastball, control and a violent slider

The Nationals' Treasure

The greatest pitcher of the 21st century has taken the mound and converted our nation's capitol to baseball fanatics. Sort of . . .
There is no doubt that the highly praised prospect, Stephen Strasburg had a very exceptional debut in the major leagues (7Innings Pitched 4Hits 2Runs 0 Walks 14 Strikeouts) and was very fun to watch as he struck out the final 7 batters he faced. Anytime you see a pitcher dominate with strikeouts it's a great show, seeing the angry hitters as they talk to themselves with angry little faces is hilarious. I know Crash Davis in "Bull Durham" claimed that strikeouts were fascist and ground ball were democratic but I say, whateveh. The K is special, it's why people love Nolan Ryan who is the all time strikeout leader with 5714 (5386 IP), it's why people used to love Roger Clemens who struck out 20 batters in a 9 inning game, TWICE. Watching the pitcher pile up strikeouts is like watching a basketball player hit outisde shots over and over; the seem unstoppable.
Let's not get over excited though, let's keep perspective, Stasburg will lose and he will have horrible games where people boo him, no pitcher has their A stuff every outing no matter how good they are. Let's also take into account he was pitching against the Pittsburgh Pirates who are one of the worst team in baseball; one could argue if his debut was against the New York Yankees the pitching line would have been less stellar.
His next start is against the Cleveland Indians who have the second worst record in the American League; Strasburg will more than likely have another solid outing. I wish the young man good fortune as it was mighty grand to see Washington DC go nuts while he was on the mound, reacting to his performance like it was a World Series game; you could say the arrival of number 37 was more exciting than the return of baseball it's self in the capitol.

Next stop Bryce Harper . . .

Dallas Braden's Perfect Game

So Oakland Athletic's very average pitcher, Dallas Braden pitched a perfect game on May 9th; only the 19th perfect game in major League baseball history. So where does this put the guy who up until now was best known for telling Yankee All Star 3rd baseman and confessed juicer Alex Rodriguez he was acting like a tool as he walked over the pitching mound as he returned from 3rd to first base. I don't claim to know what sort of weird respect you're supposed to show more veteran players but their does seem to be some sort of code of conduct regarding this relationship between newer players and older players. Also there could be a relationship between guys like A-Rod a 3 time MVP and Hall of Famer to be vs. guys like Dallas Braden who's in his 4th year and posted an 18-23 in 53 career major league starts. I do however like the fact that the pitcher called out the highest paid player in Baseball for being a dick; walking over the pitchers mound when you're on the other team is the equivalent of going to your friend's house, eating all his snacks, taking a dump and not flushing or maybe it's just arrogant.

Anyway, where does this put Braden, Mr. 209 (area code of his home town, Stockton, CA.)? He doesn't seem to posses the "stuff" to make him an ace nor does he have the history but let's suppose he is the next Tommy Glavine another soft tossing lefty (which by the way is much different than a leftist soft tosser) who was 33-41 after four years in the bigs. It wasn't until season five that he started a run of 3 consecutive 20 win seasons and his Hall of Fame career which eventually saw him win 305 games and being rewarded with the National League Cy Young award twice in 1991 and 1998. (and would have won a couple more if it hadn't been for teammate Greg Maddux) If this does happen suddenly we are blessed with what would look like a baseball class war where the working class Braden will annually go against the likes of the elite A-Rod and his Yankees or the Red Sox who only pretend to be working class but are really just as elite kinda' like that rich kid that who dresses in torn jeans and smokes out with the kids on the other side of the tracks. It would be great for baseball lore to see rivalries like this! Personally I love it when players trash talk; I loved it when Chipper Jones announced during the 1999 National League Championship Series that, "Mets fans should go home, and put on their Yankee stuff." They beat the Mets but were swept by the Yanks, so he was right, very astute. (Did you know he named one of his kids Shea?)
Alas as we all know this will only last until Braden's contract is up and he signs with the Yankees in 2012 for big money. That's the reality of baseball in these days of payroll disparity (Pittsburg Pirates at about $35,000,000 and the Yankees at $206,000,000 and Oakland at $52 million). Great players can not stay in small markets which may or may not be better for the game. It's bad for teams but to have the best players on the major market teams creates super stars who sell a lot more jerseys and tickets. Adrian Gonzalez in a Dodgers uniform rather than his Padres' is a far more lucrative asset. Josh Becket pitching for Boston makes more revenue for his team now than he did when he was with Florida Marlins. Of course some players will be able to stay where they are as long as they want, Albert Pujols are Tim Lincecum are fine examples of the franchise player.
What was I talking about? Oh, yeah, I hope Dallas Braden hits A-Rod in the ass next time they face one another.

Here's an interesting follow up. Looks like the A's are smart! Braden Doesn't like the shirt.

Personal History of Baseball pt 2

With the spring of fourth grade upon me I dauntlessly went out for the baseball team for a second year; I had grown a little and gained a modicum of coordination enabling me to field, throw and hit much more effectively than my first year of little league experience. During a regular little league season our produced 4 teams, 2 of which were for the kids who were more athletic and somehow more serious about the sport while the "b" teams were for everybody else; I was still everybody else.
For whatever reasons there was only 1 b league team team this year, The Yanks; we wore navy blue trucker caps with a white "Y" on the front while our shirts were a matching blue with the word, "Yanks" in front and "Minkler Insurance" on the back. I've never researched this but I think the Stockbridge Plain School's athletic department was having funding issues. As far as coaching went it seemed the burden went to a couple moms and dads who would rather be doing anything else but out of the kindness of their hearts or the nominal paycheck they took the gig. I think one of the women who coached was also a den mother for the local cub scouts.
I began the season with a notion that I wanted to play the catcher position; it seemed like the coolest spot to play and there was rarely any competition for it as normal kids have an aversion to bats being swung by their heads. After a couple games I guess it appeared that I was going to be one of the better players on the team as I was moved out to second base where they could have me bat clean up. This was very exciting for me; it gave a bit of confidence and a bit of clout within the team's pecking order.
It seemed that this years team was somewhat spaced out as there were kids who would just sit in the outfield and pick grass. Much like the first year I played I can't recall anything I did or how many games we won or lost but I did recall telling myself that the following year I would be on the "A" league teams. Those teams got full uniforms something I had to wait until Freshman year in high school.

Personal History of Baseball

During 3rd grade I made the autonomous decision to play baseball. Up until then I had never played organized sports as I had gone to a private school which scorned the notion of competition and my mother never thought that I'd be interested in playing team sports. Maybe she was worried I would get hurt physically and eventually emotionally. Up until this point I had never seen a live baseball game and I don't think I even watched a complete game on television but I knew what it was and I knew the goal was to hit the ball and run around the bases until you got home (I had seen "The Bad News Bears" and I had a small collection of baseball cards). I can honestly say I was not very athletic and I mainly joined to make friends. I'm fairly certain that I was the shortest player on the team unless that was this kid named Caleb; we were both short even for young kids. The team consisted boys and girls between the ages of 9-12. Since I wasn't one of the better players I was always pushed out to right field where balls were never hit.
My memories of that first year for some odd reason have nothing to do with me. I can't recall if I ever caught a ball, hit a ball or even threw a ball though I suppose I must have at very least threw the ball once. I can't recall what our record was either. What I do remember is that league rules dictated that the batting order would go in position number; the pitcher would bat first, the catcher second, the first baseman third etc. So when I played I batted last. I have more memories of other people's successes than anything I did which probably means I spent more time on the bench than in the field. I also recall our uniforms which was a blue, yellow and white polyester, V-neck shirt which read Astros; the hat was a cheap, sky blue front/white mesh cap with the letter A on the crown.
The most memorable point in the season for me however was an off field transaction when our coach Mr. Woods gave me a glove which event though it was well used was a significant upgrade from the tiny plastic one that had somehow made it's way into my life. Even with my limited memory of that season it got into my blood and made me want to play the sport for as long as I could which was until Sophomore year in High School when I failed to make the JV squad.

Baseball 2010!

The Long Cold Winter is over and now we are ready for the boys of Summer to get their asses on the diamond and play some baseball! Will this be the same story as last year with the Yankees winning everything in spite of their gigantic league leading payroll and new ballpark which Ozzie Smith could hit 20 home runs in or will their be a new champion emerging? Will the Rays make it back to the World Series behind the cock sure attitude of their third baseman Even Langoria, will they face the National League Champs of the past two years (and World Series champs of 2008) the Philies who seemed primed to dominate once again?
Those are the obvious picks and most boring along with some picking my boys from The Bean, The Boston Red Sox to go all the way with their overrated acquisition John Lackey and their defence is best attitude. Will the real David Ortiz show up? Maybe this year the Dodgers will get serious or the Mariners will have what it takes to get to their first World Series though not bloody likely seeing as all the west coast teams seem a bit anemic. Maybe the San Francisco giants will get into the playoffs while averaging 2 runs scored a game.
Predictions? I'd rather not but what kind of blogger would I be if I didn't.

A.L. East: Yankees
A.L. Central: Twins
A.L. West: Mariners
A.L. Wild Card: Red Sox
Does That Look Familiar?

N.L. East: Philies
N.L. Central: St. Louis
N.L. West: Giants
N.L. Wild Card: Atlanta
Not so interesting either is it?


Whatever happens it still won't keep me from going to see some games in Oakland where there's always a seat and one can relax in the warm sun with a beer and a dog; it's nice summer time fun. This is in contrast to games in San Francicso . . . err San Francisco, sorry Eugino they knew you wouldn't notice. Games at AT&T park are not the type of the games one thinks of when they think baseball, there's too much fog, too cold, too windy and not enough rowdiness. Well maybe once in a while somebody in the bleachers yells something but it's nothing like getting anything not bolted down thrown at you if you wear the wrong cap. This is in no way to say that baseball fans have anything on soccer hooligans by any means; those guys are beyond crazy! It actually deters me from wanting to go see a game over in England or wherever. I'll do fine just watching World Cup Highlights.

Anyway good luck baseball players; let's have some sort of interesting season this year. Maybe all the stars will be suspended for their drug use and Kansas City will play Baltimore in the AL Championship while the Nationals and Pittsburgh hit and run it out in the NL leading to a Beltway World Series. Oh yeah! watch those rating soar!

Nomar Garciaparra Retires

One time Red Sox Great and husband to Mia Hamm, Nomar Garciaparra has officially retired. What can I say that hasn't been said or thought? It's a shame. Those are oddly the first words to come to mind as he was a Boston favorite from the beginning of his career in 1996 when he played on some Red Sox teams that didn't go anywhere only to be traded to the Cubs during the 2004 season. He should have been on that team when they won the World Series; it was a sad echo following the screams and cheers of the victory parade.

The redemption came when he signed a minor league contract with the Red Sox so he could retire in a Sox uniform, I almost wept.