Cue “Hallelujah Chorus”
It’s Opening Day, ladies and gentlemen, thank God, and even though the Yanks have already gotten rained out for the home opener, it’s an embarrassment of baseball riches around the dial right now — KC/Detroit, Cubbies/Brew Crew (that team looks pretty dangerous this year), Mets/whoever coming up at 4 PM, Nats already on the board with a win. Love it!
And sitting on my coffee table, waiting for me to earn reading it by finishing some paperwork, is the SI Baseball Preview.
Praise the Lord and pass the trash-talk; the 2008 season is underway.
[Edited to add: the conference went swimmingly, thanks. A fantastic slate of presentations, much fun at The Boro afterwards, and if anyone cares, the collected presentations of ’06 and ’07 are available here — including the Pete Rose paper I presented. McFarland has a truly amazing range of baseball books (and on other subjects), so if you’re shopping for the baseball fan who’s read everything, take a spin through their site.]
Tags: books friends
Today is my favorite holiday! I rejoice. And thank god for Carlos Guillen, cause Jason Grilli sure as hell didn’t seem to want Detroit to win this game. Todd Jones just needs to keep it together and then one more run, guys. Hehe, so happy!
I was so happy for that kid who led off the 11th with his first major-league hit. Los Tigres didn’t do anything with it, but it was still nice to see.
Seriously! Already I’ve had my first nail biting game watching while yahoo! game channel updates at work. I feel the joy of slipping back into the best groove EVER.
I really liked the SI preview btw. Did you see their entire back issue since ever is now available online – for free?
Praise the little baby jesus infant christ child! The season, it is upon us all. I started out my day with a workout to music all about baseball and I am fired up!! Go Cubs Go. Hey, it’s ’08 again, this must be the year. We can make it a Centennial Tradition.
When we were at a play yesterday, my dad spotted Paul Godfrey, owner of the Jays, who was in town for opening day. They even had a little conversation. And Paul Godfrey could tell my dad was from out of town because no one else would know who the hell he was (including everyone else in our playgoing party).
Good sighting. Although I would pay a lot of money to see your dad having a little conversation with a Steinbrenner instead. A LOT of money.
Ron Darling used the phrase “man-love” a few innings ago, talking about how tiny the Marlins’ visiting-broadcasters’ booth is. I would have posted about it earlier but I was IM-ing with Joe R about tasteless Fukudome puns. Better than Christmas.
I nearly cried last night watching the Nats open up the new stadium, and I hollered my head off when Zimmerman slugged in the winning homer. Praise God, for baseball season is upon us! This is better than Christmas.
I am a huge dork. I was watching the Dodgers game in the library on MLB.TV this afternoon, and they had a bunch of ex-Dodgers in the ballpark for the opening ceremony. It basically took all of my strength not to squeal like a fangirl when Sandy Koufax came out onto the field, still lookin’ sharp at 72 with his suit and his shades. He and Don Newcombe and Carl Erskine threw out the ceremonial first pitches. It was fantastic.
And then the Dodgers beat the Giants!!! What else can you ask for on Opening Day at Dodger Stadium? Beat ’em 5-0 — Vin Scully liked the symbolism of the score.
I was at the Nats game last night and though, as a Braves fan, I was disappointed in the end result, as a fan of the game, I completely appreciate a club winning their first game in their new house on a bottom-of-the-ninth, tie game, two out, walkoff home run.
And the stadium is gorgeous, the staff was polite and friendly, and the beer was cold (as were we, but that’s baseball in March) – what more can you ask for?
@sarahR — what do you think of the new park? a thing of beauty. the walk-off was icing.
happiest day of the year!
Dja see Bill James on 60 Minutes last night?
I didn’t — is it online? What did he say?
And did anyone else sign up for billjamesonline.com?
Sars, I signed up for billjamesonline.com. I’m just going to start assuming that Bill and I are going to have differing opinions on the Hall of Fame viability of every single one of my favorite players for the rest of forever (first it was Drysdale, now it’s Edgar Martinez — sigh). That said, the articles he has up on the website are fascinating. I especially liked the one he did on figuring out when a pitcher pitched based on their record alone.
I missed 60 Minutes because I was watching hockey, but the full segment is on CBSNews.com here.
@rhymes-with-sarah: haven’t seen the completed park in person (sad realities of grad school in Michigan, although it lets me see the occasional Tigers game) — think it looks gorgeous from what I’ve seen online though.
@rhymes-with-sarah: it is a beautiful park, isn’t it? I was thoroughly impressed and can’t wait to go back.
@Emm: When does Jason Grilli ever pitch like he wants the Tigers to win? I’ve had it out for that guy ever since he nearly lost us Game 4 of the LCS in ’06. That being said, the bullpen wasn’t what lost that game for Detroit. Leaving 18 (!?!) runners on base did. I only had MLB Radio on at work, but it sounded like they approached every at bat with runners on like they were gonna pop one into the stands. Leyland won’t let that shit go on for very long, I can tell you.
And on a shallow note – what was up with the Brewers uniforms? I know wide leg trousers are supposed to be in now, but how the heck do Gagne and Fielder run in those pants?
@Emm and Drew- We dropped Byrdak like a bad habit before the season even started, and yet here’s Grilli, still imploding spectacularly every damn time we put him in? When the bullpen has been our weak spot for the past 2 seasons, at least, how much longer can we let *that* go on?
Though, let’s hear it for Inge playing the hell out of center. I know he doesn’t want to be there, and I know we don’t want him there, but he’s making the best of it and I love him for it.
Hooray for Opening Day! Let the bitching commence! ;-)
@Amanda: I actually lipped off to James in the comments on his Roger Clemens piece; he was arguing really strongly for giving Clemens the benefit of the doubt, and while he made some good points mathematically, his psychoanalysis of the situation didn’t work for me, and before I knew it I was arguing. WITH BILL JAMES. I had to go lie down after. In any case, $3 a month is not a bad price for that material.
@Daisy: Are you sure that’s Fielder’s pants and not…his actual leg? The apple didn’t fall too far from the tree in the that-is-a-big-boy department. (BSD and I were pretty excited when that guy got called up, not only because he’s really talented but because we still had all these Cecil Fielder fat jokes lying around and nowhere to go with them.)
Also, DET fans, download ESPN’s Baseball Today podcast from over the weekend, when they’re talking about the AL in ’08; there’s some good discussion of Detroit’s pitching. And the show takes listener emails, if you’re feeling the need to vent to a national audience.
I have two words for anyone who thinks they have a reliever to complain about–Flash Gordon.
The man has now been bad longer than he was good and he’s STILL blowing up for the Phils who staged a nice comeback (JRol is still MVP) to go into the ninth tied 6-6 and lost 11-6. All courtesy of Gordon. (And the insistance of certain managers to never use any reliever, no matter how effective, for more than one inning–yes, Uncle Charlie, wake up I’m talkin’ to you!)
Thanks for the tip, Sars! :-)
The sun is sunnier, the blue sky is bluer, the birds are chirpier…yay opening day! I will be travelling from SoCal to SF this weekend to take my nine-month-old daughter (yes, she does have a wee cap and team onesie; thanks for asking) to her first MLB game, which for her dad’s and my sins, will be our team, the Giants, home opener. They will of course get their asses handed to them on a platter with a cherry on top…I could start listing the problems, but I don’t have that kind of free time. I’ll just say: beat by our own farm team last week. With the 957 mandillion dollar Zito pitching. It’s going to be a long season. We feel, though, that this is a good start on our program of making sure she’s no fair-weather fan.
Anyhow: eeeeee!!