Friday, April 17, 2009

Opening Week


Baseball is in full swing now, nearly two full weeks in the books. I went to four games opening week, Opening day and the second game of Cubs verses Astros in Houston and then was at Detroit at Toronto on Wednesday (although for only 1 and a half innings as my flight was massively delayed) and Thursday, so it was mucho beisbol for me last week. This week all of my baseball viewing has been on the television (or more likely on my computer screen via MLB.tv)

Here are some of the things I've noticed so far...

Carlos Marmol should be closing for the Cubbies and not Kevin Gregg. Marmol has been spectacular, while Gregg has blown 2 saves and been the culprit in a late inning loss when he came in with the game tied. In the two games Marmol has come in with a save opportunity, however, the Cubs have gotten the win without giving up so much as a run. In Gregg's only save, he nearly blew a three run lead. Time to make the switch, Lou.

It is amazing how unique things happen in baseball to this day. Rich Harden went only three innings in his last start, but struck out 8 of the 9 outs and the only out that wasn't a strike out was on a baserunning play. That means that 0 of the outs for Harden's three innings of work he didn't get a single out on a batted ball. No ground outs, fly outs, line outs, pop outs, or fly outs. That has never happened since at least 1954 for an outing of at least 3 innings. Ian Kinsler the other day hit for the cycle, which is rare in and of itself, but he did it in a game that he went 6 for 6 in. The last time someone had a perfect day with that many hits and hit for the cycle? 1894. Despite the fact that there are 30 teams that play this game at least 162 times a year, there are still things happening that are at the very least rare, and occasionally completely unique.

You really don't want to be my AL preseason World Series pick. Last year I picked the Tigers, they then started 0-7. This year I picked the Indians who promptly went 0-5 and lost 7 of their first 8.

Finally, I want to tell a little story about my return from Toronto. As my plane was arriving back into DFW, the cloud cover was 100%. You couldn't see anything but clouds. Then, as we began to descend towards them one little spot opened up perfectly framing a baseball field. It was awesome. After we emerged from the clouds, the first thing that caught my eye on the ground was another baseball field. The Baseball season is here and I am so glad.


The Houston Skyline from Minute Maid as the sun is going down.


Alfonso Soriano up to bat


New Cub Milton Bradley in the field


Rogers Center, home of the Toronto Blue Jays, from outside


Rogers Center, home of the Toronto Blue Jays after beating the Tigers 6-2

1 comment:

  1. it's about time! but no mention of 6th street, the new home of houston pre-game action? btw, if i lived anywhere but houston, i'd have stopped watching local baseball by now. but it's not even late july yet...

    ReplyDelete