Jeff: Take Me Out to the Ballgame

What is it about opening day in baseball? Despite all the steroid coverage and the overblown and overanalyzed Red Sox/Yankees rivalry (I may not be able to read the Sports Guy again until November), I was still excited for Opening Day. It took me all of one day to start worrying about the Mariners, despite their win, and the worries continue as they've dropped 2 straight to the Twins. Here's a some other thoughts as the baseball season has begun...

• Not sure what to think of all the national media guys hopping the Twins bandwagon and picking them to win the World Series. It could be a curse, or they could be right. They'll win the division but I think their young hitters are a year away from being able to get them to the World Series. Still, if everybody develops and Mauer's body holds up, that's a very scary team.
• To steal a line from Jason Churchill, the executive editor of insidethepark.com... "If Billy Beane is considered a small-market genius for what he's done with the (Oakland) A's, then what does that make (Twins GM) Terry Ryan? Super-Genius? Emperor? god of small-market baseball?"
• One other Twins note: Carl Pohlad said today he wasn't sure he could make it financially if the Twins can't get a new stadium. Really? Well then sell the damn team, Carl. The Twin Cities is the 15th largest media market in America. Bigger than St Louis. Bigger than San Diego. Bigger than Cincinnati. All those teams are doing fine and are spending money on free agents. I'm getting sick and tired of the "woe are we the small-market team". REALLY tired.
• It would be bad enough being a Chicago White Sox fan. Your team is always good enough to disappoint, you have a horrible stadium, and no matter how hard you try and deny it, you're not the Cubs and you can't stand it. What would put me over the edge is if I had to watch the Sox and listen to Hawk Harrelson and whoever that jackass is that's their analyst broadcast the games. How could ANYBODY stand those two?!??!?! Flipping through channels for some afternoon baseball yesterday I came across the Sox/Tribe game on WGN, and I thought I'd take in the 8th and 9th inning. Annoying is not even the word. "Makes-you-want-to-stick-scissors-in-your-ear-to-stop-the-pain" is more like it. From the ridiculous "YOU CAN PUT IT ON THE BOARD....YYYYYYYYYESSSSSSSSSSS!!!" home run call to "HE GONE!" when somebody strikes out, the newest We Hate Men movie on the Oxygen network was starting to look almost appealing. To add to it, there's also the incredible one-sided view of the game. These guys are professionals? I understand giving a Sox slant to it, but they were going way overboard. I wonder why? Do they need to try this hard to convince Sox fans it's ok to cheer for them and not the Cubs? Could it be that they're worried somebody will see through the facade of "We hate the Cubs and we're glad we're not them"? (even thought you KNOW they're upset because they didn't get the job to replace Chip Carrey and Steve Stone) Maybe they were just thankful to be alive because they made it from their car to the stadium without being mugged. Whatever it was, I'm amazed that there's any Sox fans left. Not that there's many to begin with. If, for some strange reason you feel the need to torture yourself, turn on WGN next time the White Sox are on and see how long you can last. And can we all just agree we hate the White Sox? Thank you.

Finally, just though you'd want to know I'll get to see my first game at Safeco Field in SEattle in a couple of weeks against the Tribe. Hopefully the Mariners won't already be eliminated from the playoffs by then.