Baseball Post

Back to the blog. Anyone still reading or reading for the first time, spread the word. I could use some input of all shapes and sizes.

Baseball season is done with all its official starts both away and on these shores. Now the season can start for real; here are a couple of the games I was interested in most so far.

Mets - Marlins: I sat around watching the box score for this one all day after work ended. I started getting some flashbacks to last season. The Mets started off with great pitching, lit up the scoreboard with 6 runs in the 4th inning, and then allowed the Marlins 2. This was the pattern of many a game in the Mets 2007 slide, only back then Florida wouldn't have stopped at 2 runs. Instead they'd have left the inning with an 8-6 lead. All in all I'm glad to see a good first outing from Santana, but I expected that. Seeing both the offense perform and the bullpen hold it down was the greater relief. I still want to see runs distributed a bit more evenly over the game; if our bats decide they can only get hot together, it will spell great trouble when they all decide to get cold. 5, 6 run innings became peanuts at the end of last season, when an oppontent could go into the 7th knowing they could score 8 or 9 on the Mets bullpen. Strong outing today, but we still need to see the rest of the rotation at work.

Yankees - Blue Jays: This one didn't happen thanks to rain, and WFAN was lit up with callers screaming he said/she said about when the game was officially called off and why the Yankees didn't make an earlier decision. Francessa and Russo did decent damage control, emphasizing that neither team wants to lose a start from their ace, and that tomorrow's night game will give everyone in the Tri State area a chance to come back after work. Still sucks from the one guy who called in claiming to have come from Baltimore, but fuck him. I know the guy wanted to see the last opener at Yankee Stadium, but for that money he could see every Yanks-Orioles game this season. Anyway, if Halladay doesn't win tomorrow I'll be pissed. The Yanks have to learn that Wang as their ace is a bad idea.

Orioles - Rays: Hilarious. First the old school O's fans on the radio remakred how all the openers back in Memorial Stadium were bright and sunny, while today was an appropriately cold and miserable start for a team that is going nowhere. The Orioles are always a tease; they started off with a two run lead, but the Rays scored six later on. 2 outs in the 9th, the O's get a man on base after an error, only to have the game end with the next batter. Every glimmer of hope is squashed down with this team, and I really want to feel for the fans. Their protests of Peter Angelos last season were enough to make a New York fan proud, but if they want my full support, some fans need to do better. I'm talking about the folks who call this a "rebuilding year", even though they don't know most of the names on the team. In NY a rebiulding year means you know every player on the field so you can either call for their heads or throw their name into one of your 50 homebrew trade scenarios. Rebuilding means making moves when they're at their peak. Both the fans and Angelos seem uncapable of these things, and until they are I will give this team the death sentence, and suggest that O's fans not take cues from Ravens fans.

Nationals Vs Braves and Phillies: Unless I did my math wrong, the Nationals are the best team in the league. And they got there by beating my two most hated NL East teams. Not too bad to see them and the Mets on top. The jury is still out on whether these guys have the stuff to stay out of the basement, but here's hoping. The new stadium will bring the DC elite to the games, and that revenue can be put to good use.