The Minnesota Twins begin their heroic campaign for 3rd or 4th place in their division tonight, 6pm, ESPN2 (if yer in the upper midwest). Yes, it's a tough division. Half the starters are new. We traded Johan Santana to the Mets for a bunch of silly players. Johan will be winning the NL Cy Young this year because 1/9 of the batters he faces will be pitchers. I say he gets 300 Ks.
And I champion having baseball in a dome. With 6-8" of snow forecast today, why wouldn't you want to be at 65 degrees in the Metrodome? And in July, what, 90 degrees and blood-sucking bugs the size of birds coming at you? No thanks.
Anywho, what better way to start out spring than cheering for overgrown teenagers getting paid as much money as some smalls country's GDP? Is there any? At least you might as well watch a small market team, where there is still some shadow of real American baseball.
The good thing about opening day is even though you know it won't happen, you still believe in your team, you still think maybe, just maybe, somehow, they will win it all and ease the numbing pain of your life for a few hours. Cubs fans, know what I mean? Pirates?
You could watch the NHL Minnesota Wild make the playoffs as a 3rd seed this week, but hockey has too much action, like basketball. Give me something hypnotic like baseball or football where people stand around for large chunks of time just thinking about what to do next, then anticipating it while thinking some more. (does that make them stupid?)
10 comments:
HA! Hypnotic is the right word usage there, isn't it? We used to go to the Phillies opener when we lived in PA, it was always so cold, but we did get to see a streaker run the bases one year, when that behaviour was in vogue. The police chased him around the bases, staying in the line! They finally caught him, he was a dark haired fellow.
Frances
Well Frances, sometimes those games are pretty bad. Especially a 1-1 or 0-0 tie in the 12th inning--please, dad, can we go home? No son, I paid for these tickets, getting my money's worth. A streaker would be cool!
Whenever I think of baseball, it takes me back to 7th grade and being stuck in the outfield. My friend and I would carry on conversations while every now and then, a baseball would soar over our heads ... or land nearby, and we would continue talking, oblivious to the furor we were causing.
Having grown up in St Louis I have a lasting love for the Cardinals, must be encoded in the dna!
There is something wonderful about a baseball game on a spring day...maybe it's spring!
gail
Yuck, sorry Gail, I have an everlasting disgust for the Cardinals--having beaten them in a cloase world series in 1987.
Kate--7th grade was the first, and last year I played baseball in school. Yikes. I couldn't see the thing coming down through the sun, was just terrified. Don't even talk to me about the batter's box--no way a 13 year old pitcher had enough control not to hit me, so I just swung at everything hoping to get it over with. Still, I like to play the game LEISURELY if I can.
I still love baseball, but it just isn't the same these days. And I'm not talking about steroids and HGH and Jose Canseco's self-aggrandizing propaganda--er, books--here.
No... baseball really turned a corner for me the day that Ernie Harwell hung up his hat and stopped announcing regularly for my beloved Detroit Tigers. *sigh*
I miss my Kirby Puckett. At least the Tigers have a good team!
I don't miss Kirby Puckett at all! (as you can imagine) lol.
Blackswamp_girl thats just wrong, Kirby loved baseball enough to play for the Twins for a fraction of what he could've been paid by the Yankees or Red Sox so you're gonna talk shit about him 2 years after his death.... thats some serious class right there.
But anyway back to the reason I'm even posting on this, I'd just like to congratulate the author of this article for the worst call of the year as the Twins are 12 games over .500 and a half game out of the division with 2 more games left in the current series at home with the division leading White Sox. So much for 3rd or 4th place, those spots are for the Indians, Royals, and Tigers to fight for.
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