Ever blink and miss an entire month? Welcome to my March!
Well, here we are, springtime, April, the month of showers for future flowers, about to crown new men’s and women’s NCAA basketball champs (on top of NIT, CIT, CBI and CIA champs... I made up the last one to see if you’re paying attention), and snow in the Midwest and northeast. But somehow, just like every spring, major league baseball teams return from Grapefruit and Cactus League camps and begin to entertain us with a six-month regular season of hope springing eternal and rabid fans calling their local sports radio stations to vent a spleen on a daily basis.
Anyway, in case you were too engrossed in the Final Four, traveling to research conferences, shopping for Passover or Easter, or making sense of the new movie Hop, this past weekend offered us MLB Opening Day with all the bunting and hoopla for 15 hosting teams, while 15 other teams wait for their opportunity to play before their own fans. But baseball is finally here, and even the most pessimistic fan knows that all 30 teams begins with a clean slate and bright days ahead at the ol’ ballpark.
Where did I come up with “Rosh Ha-Baseball”? Well, on Wednesday, one of my all-time favorite sportscasters, Len Berman, sent out this thought in his “Daily Top 5”:
Happy "New Year's Eve." Baseball season begins tomorrow.
My response? So is tomorrow Rosh Ha-Baseball? Hopefully you don’t have to be Jewish to get it...
Anyway... So what’s caught your eye and fancy during the first weekend of the 2011 MLB season? Have you made your predictions yet for the World Series, Cy Young, MVP, and Rookie of the Year? Are your predictions etched in stone or do you allow yourself unlimited times to edit and waffle as the roller coaster rhythm of the season goes on? I’m not making any predictions this year until I see enough of the season, thank you. Check back with me around Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day.
But a dozen things have already caught my attention:
1. The defending World Series champs, the San Francisco Giants, started their season in Los Angeles, rather than at home. Gee... You’d think the geniuses at MLB would’ve figured out a way to schedule the World Series champs to open at home, in Candlestick Park, especially when the Giants and Dodgers play the first Sunday Night game on ESPN? Is the story the Giants defending their crown or how the Dodgers will function under new manager Don Mattingly while the ownership is still being sorted out in divorce court?
2. After the very first game, two Dodgers fans beat a Giants fan so badly in the parking lot of Chavez Ravine he’s now in hospital with a fractured skull and brain swelling, a lousy note for all who love baseball. Not to be crass, but it seems folks in Los Angeles have a reputation for bashing in heads, don’t they? Rodney King, Reginald Denny... Odd coincidence? Certainly takes away some of that L.A. classiness.
3. For those with fond memories of past golden eras in baseball, it was both touching and sad to see tributes by the Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers for the recently-departed Bob Feller, Ron Santo, Chuck Tanner, Duke Snider and Sparky Anderson, five of the classiest members of MLB history many of us might’ve known.
4. As for the Indians, it was noted by USA TODAY that Friday’s starter, Fausto Carmona, was 7-0 with a 2.82 ERA in his last seven starts versus the Chicago White Sox. In case you didn’t notice Friday’s box score, the White Sox won 15-10. Carmona’s line score? 10 earned runs on 11 hits in three innings. Guess eight isn’t a lucky number...
5. It’s supposed to be cold in Cleveland; in fact, the Indians’ ground crew had to clean snow off the field prior to Friday’s game. You’d expect runs to come at a premium, right? Well, Friday’s game was 15-10, Saturday’s was 8-3 (also won by the White Sox), and Sunday’s was 7-1 (won by the Tribe). I’d say 44 combined runs in three days says enough about cold bats and cold weather, don’t you?
6. If the Indians are as bad as they’re projected and as they played during the opening weekend series, will it be long before we see Charlie Sheen appears in his Major League role of Ricky Vaughn? Sounds like a WINNING proposition, especially with negotiations underway to make Major League 4. If reviews about his traveling comedy act were truly accurate, perhaps Charlie Goodtime SHOULD consider suiting up and joining the Tribe’s bullpen.
7. Do you really think the cure to Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira’s notorious slow starts are as simple as opening the season March 31st? Sure, 4 hits in 12 at bats, 3 homeruns, and 7 RBIs is a nice way to open things, but April does have 30 days, you know. I know, I know... It’s more fun to talk about Teixeira being on pace for 162 homeruns than the fact that the Yankees pitching staff gave up 19 runs this weekend at the Stadium to the Tigers. Psst, psst... Should we mention the Yankees and Mets are both 2-1 after the opening weekend and tied for second place in their divisions? Just wanted to remind folks New York DOES have two major league baseball teams.
8. Let me get this straight... The Yankees have been directed by MLB not to give hand signals to batters from the stands during games? Hey, sometimes coaching has to be creative when you pare down your payroll to $203M! Of course, what Yankees fans should find most galling is that their front office is now associated with an offense one attributes only to professional sports teams northeast of I-87 (feel free to debate UConn basketball being a professional sports team, men’s and women’s).
9. Speaking of Belichickery and Boston, are the New York Daily News and Bergen Record going to spend all summer yammering about the Yankees being “underdog” to the Red Sox? C’mon... When you have two teams operating payrolls with Monopoly money, the AL East favorite is really just a matter of #1 and #1A, right? I mean, really! No wonder Buck Showalter’s Orioles are more worthwhile to root for. They’re already off to a 3-0 start, sweeping the Rays in Tampa.
10. If you’re looking for omens, consider the Red Sox, Rays, Brewers and Astros are the only winless teams after the season’s first weekend, while the Orioles, Rangers, Reds and Phillies are the remaining unbeatens. Oh, and not for nothing, but before we carry on too much about Yankees pitchers serving up 19 runs to the Tigers this past weekend, did anyone notice Red Sox pitchers served up 26 runs and 11 homeruns to the Rangers while being swept in Arlington? Yeah, let’s just keep making automatic presumptions about the AL East...
11. The ghost of Braden Looper?! Is there something rather eerie about Opening Day at home for the Cincinnati Reds and ninth-inning comebacks? Watching the Brewers bullpen meltdown and Ramon Hernandez’s walk-off three-run homer reminded me an awful lot like Opening Day 2005, when the Mets bullpen ruined the debut of Pedro Martinez. Yes, Mets fans... Time DOES fly! Hmmm... Do you think all those on the “Brewers could shock the world” bandwagon a few days ago might be rethinking their optimism, especially for a pitching staff that served up 23 runs, including 8 homeruns?
12. Did you catch Carl Pavano’s Opening Day performance Friday in Toronto against the Blue Jays? Four innings, 7 earned runs, 3 homeruns given up in a 13-3 loss. I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but he did sign a nice multi-year contract after an excellent season last year (17-11, 221 innings pitched, 3.73 ERA) for the Twins. Does anyone want to weigh in on the amount of facial hair he’s sporting? Last year he did have that Rollie Fingers mojo going for him, so who knows what Pavano and his razor might do to mess things up. Perhaps Yankees fans might wish to weigh in on this phenomenon?
See how you can talk about baseball without any mention of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, or Bernie Madoff? Let’s see how long we can keep it that way and truly enjoy this season!
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