Hello Baseball Fans,
Here we go kids, the real season is about to start! All those days of tanning and toasty temperatures in Arizona and Florida are just about to expire. Teams will pack up, if they haven’t already, and head north, west, or east to play some games in considerably colder temperatures (yep, even Tampa Bay will have to settle for 72 degrees INDOORS rather than 80s outside, BURRR!). Teams and fans are hoping it just doesn’t get frosty (except for the beer) or all out snowy out there for the first pitch. Or last pitch for that matter. There’s nothing quite like sitting at a Spring Training game when you know it’s only late March, yet the palm trees and grass are nice and green. And that’s outside the stadium. The ball field is in mid-season form, perhaps ahead of some players. Heck, the band has been stricken up for a pregame celebration, may as well bee-bop your way into the arena to fully take in the sun, seeds, and suds!
At a spring game, the players mean business, but you can tell it’s a practice game. Of course, there are home and away stadiums in spring ball, but it feels closer to neutral ground than a typical regular season game. The uniforms are much more colorful too. It’s common to see both teams with multi-colored jerseys on and no names on the backs. They’re nice looking and move lots of merchandise. Cha-ching!! However, I’d prefer for the teams to leave ALL of the solid colored jerseys in the spring training complexes. Regular season means REGULAR jerseys, to me anyway. Home team wears white (just like their pants)and visitor wears gray (just like the pants). The fad of “well, we wear dark jerseys on Friday night home games” and a “we may also have another special for Sunday afternoon home games”. WHY? You can still make them and sell them. Just wear them less, please. Perhaps randomly too. That’s special.
Ok, check that rant off the list. Tonight, the Cubs and Cardinals toss out the first game that counts. Big time rivalry gets us amped up in prime time, baby! Grab some buds and jelly beans to check out the still-being-revamped Wrigley Field. The construction will prove timely in that it mandated 5,000 seats to be covered up and will serve as an additional tribute to the late Ernie Banks as his presence will be further felt on those massive seat covers. It’s been 70 years since the Cubbies even went to the World Series. Yeah, they hold that record too. Now their manager, Joe Maddon, is the right guy for the job. Why? Because he even wears jersey number 70! And did so in Tampa also. Fitting. Perhaps prophetic to end a nasty streak, or two? Who knows, but we’ll start to find out tonight!
Ok, here are some predictions. Due to parity in the leagues, nobody will win 100 games with the disclaimer unless the Washington Nationals trade for another bat…..The Pirates, Dodgers, Angels, White Sox, and BoSox will join the Nats as division winners……The N.L. will provide Wild Card berths for the Cardinals and Giants while the Mariners and Indians represent the A.L…..The BoSox offense will lead the majors in runs and strikeouts…..Nobody in the A.L. East will win even 89 games…..The Cubs will finish within a few games of the 2nd Wild Card to wonder to themselves and be scrutinized by local and national media for deciding not to start Kris ‘The Natural’ Bryant in the Bigs versus the Iowa (AAA) Cubs. After all, he hit only .425 with 9 dingers and 15 RBI in forty Spring abs. Mike Trout will hit over .300 AND strikeout less than 135 times this year after leading the A.L. with 184 K’s in 2014. Look for him to make at least a noteworthy run at the Triple Crown through July too…..Comeback Player of the Year will be Prince Fielder, who was limited to 42 games and had season-ending neck surgery last year. He’s good for at least 32 bombs and a .300+ average in the Texas heat…..For the first time since 2003, we’ll have five 20-Game winners in some combination of Max Scherzer, Feliz Hernandez, Clayton Kershaw, Madison Bumgarner, Corey Kluber, Johhny Cueto, and Adam Wainwright.
With all that said, we’ll end by wishing a Happy Easter to all! And since it’s Easter, we should look back at Luscious ‘Luke’ Easter’s career. The massive 6’4″, 240 lb. slugger and first-sacker played for the Indians for the better part of six seasons from 1949- ’54. In ’52, at age 36 he smacked 31 HRs and 97 RBI in just 486 plate appearances. He also tore up the Pacific Coast and International AAA Leagues’ pitchers where almost all of his seasons were in Rochester and Buffalo, N.Y. Local fans may recall his prodigious blasts OVER the light towers at Rochester’s old Silver Stadium. Talk about MOON shots!! We couldn’t account for any professional stats for Easter in his 20s. He played two years in the Negro Leagues at age 31 & 32 and no stats were available there either. However, he totaled 362 HRs between Cleveland and AAA ball. That’s a lot of souvenirs!
Later Baseball Fans.