Category Archives: opening day

Baseball Brings Hope To The Weary

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I have said every year that I have two religious holidays that I celebrate. First is the opening Sunday of the NFL season, and the second is obviously Opening Day for MLB. This year the Twins are playing in LA, so I have the privilege of watching the first four games on TV here. I will also be venturing towards the land of Mickey on Wednesday to see the game, which means that all is well in the world of Gellman. Funny enough, though my wife is VERY pregnant, she was the one who wanted to go more than anyone.

Other than that, Im glad there are a slew of games today, and I have the opportunity to watch each and every one on demand, thanks to my purchase of 1 month of MLB TV. See, this is the part of the season when I am so interested in baseball that I would sit and watch any game that is on. The feeling quickly wears off about 50 games in, where I switch modes to paying attention to only the Twins. I have the feeling that this particular season will try my patience with the Twinkies, especially after the Target Field new car smell wears off. This is the first season in a long time where pitching is the hole rather than hitting, and everyone knows that pitching is always more important. There are also teams like Detroit who made as many moves as the Twins, slating them atop many lists as a contender for the AL Central Crown. However, with good improvements made to the infield due to the signing of Orlando Hudson and JJ Hardy, as well as Jim Thome to fill the ever fluctuating DH slot on occasion, I still think the Twins have a good shot at a run into the post season.

I still think its kind of odd that despite my lack of interest in baseball cards and most things baseball that come extra, I still pay very close attention to what is going on for most of the season. I follow the stats more than anything, and I get awfully heated when the all star rosters and season ending awards come around. I hate undue recognition in Baseball, mainly because of the outdated stats used to determine success. With last year’s awards being the first in a long time to pick the right players, I felt somewhat vindicated in my hulabaloo. This year, I hope the trend continues as dumb ass sports writers move away from stats like Wins for Pitchers and RBIs for Batters. Baseball has long shown that the good players excel at getting on base and hitting for both average and power over knocking in runs, and that Wins are about as meaningless of a stat as Holds or something similar. I can see that maybe people like Joe Morgan, Woody Paige and Mike Celezic are finally becoming part of a growing minority now that Sabremetrics are finally making their way to the top of player measurements.

Lastly, because Baseball is here, we know that nice weather isnt far behind. Baseball is a constant in our lives and I expect it to be for as long as I am around. It’s a long, long, long season and its tough to not get caught up in early hype and small sample size success. At this point I don’t care, as its obvious that the Yankees are slated for 162 losses if they continue on their current pace. Hopefully this statement turns out to be true as the season moves on, but right now, everyone is in first place, and everyone has the shot at being world champs. I cant help but wonder who will rise to the challenge this year, and Im praying to the baseball gods that my Twins will be the ones to raise the trophy when all is said and done.

Get Ready To Sock Some Dingers

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Its that time of year again, my friends, that time of year when the sky is usually blue enough that it hurts your eyes to look at, the time of the year when the titans of the game take off the training wheels and let ‘er rip. Finally, its opening day. Finally.

This year, its been tough to get excited with Mauer on the shelf for up to a month, and the Twins hurting in general, but everything always seems to work itself out. In fact, Mauer is far from the biggest name on the DL, as Rodriguez is out for a few weeks and Hamels is also out for a few weeks. Everyone is still recouperating from the WBC, and the fans are putting on their winter jackets to sit through the early games in the cold weather cities. Its still a wonderful time of the year.

To me, Football is obviously the bigger sport, and much more of delicacy considering the lack of games, but that doesn’t take all the excitement out of the boys of summer. I will say this, I did not re-purchase the baseball package this year, and I think that is a pretty good idea. You get to that middle part of the season where teams are on autopilot and you just get bored. At least I did last year. It becomes another job to get home and watch the games you paid for.

As for the hobby, I havent bought a box of baseball cards for myself in a long time, and Prime Cuts was really the only set I saw that was worth my time. I bought a box of threads with money I had won or gotten as a gift, so it really wasn’t the same as risking my shit for a box of cards that wasn’t going to produce. Baseball has become even more of a first world collector’s sport because there just isnt anything worth spending 200 bucks on for a box these days. Triple Threads is a disgusting excuse for a product, and Topps Sterling is even worse. I cant justify spending 200 bucks on a five hit box, let alone 250 on a 1 hit box or a 1 auto box, when the majority of the autos are worth less than 10 bucks on ebay.

Baseball should have a good season this year, though, as most of us are looking for another team to recreate the Tampa Bay miracle. Last year showed that payroll means nothing, and Baseball needed that. It didn’t stop the Spankees from spending a small country on Captain Cheeseburger and Mark Texiera, and if you were looking at how much was being thrown around, you would wonder what the hell people were talking about when they mentioned the bad economy.

Either way, today should have been a holiday, and it should be your top priority to get out to a park this week to enjoy the nice or shitty weather for playing Baseball. Im going to try to make an Angels game, but work sucks about that, so it may not be possible.

So, umm, PLAY BALL!