An eventful opening to the season. Manny went down in a blaze of ignominy to join the other past greats who'll never get into the Hall (don't know how others feel, but I'd probably let the "juiced" players in the Hall, except Manny who I never liked anyway). The Cardinals stink and Pujols is batting .143 - ho hum. The Rangers look like the best team and the Phils, I regret to say, are leading the East and I can't see anyone catching them.

Manny: good riddance!

Hey - I saw the 60 Minutes piece on your man Pujols. Impressive. I hope the Cards keep him.

My Sox off to a <koff koff> rough start. Good thing it's a long season!

The Brew Crew is off to a good start for another disappointing season, there's a minor league team playing 30 mins away that I'd much rather go see. Cheaper tickets, better seats and $1 beer & brats on certain nights.

Brian

In honor of the Civil War sesquicentennial...

SF closer Brian Wilson (the beard is even more civil war era this season). Yes, it's real - he just dyes it.

Is Pujols injured, and not telling anyone? I can't recall that guy ever having a slump.

I find myself increasingly uninterested in all pro sports, but baseball annoys me especially.

Or maybe it's baseball fans, baseball marketing, baseball the business.

I live in disputed Red Sox/Yankees territory. As a Mets fan, I rise above the fray, or below it.

But the ugliness I witness between different groups of fans is way out of proportion to the importance of these games. (Operative word: "Games.")

I particularly object to the frequently expressed opinion that such-and-such a team "sucks."

I went to Citi Field for the first time last season, during the Mets-Yankees series. (This was when the Mets still showed signs of life.)

The fans were predictably awful. One leather-lunged and over-served kid in my section (right field) spent the entire game screaming at Nick Swisher. Brilliant commentary. "You suck!" over and over.

And the place is too loud. There are a lot of static moments in a baseball game. Not too long ago these were times to consult with your friends, and even those seated nearby, about batting averages, the pitcher, or other points of the game.

Not today. I lost my voice in the fourth inning trying to talk to my friend in the next seat. Why? Because I had to yell over the barrage of announcements and snippets of music and other irritations. Baseball management believes today's fan must be assaulted with stimuli at every opportunity.

If I go this season it will be to a mid-week game against another lousy team. Pittsburgh, maybe. There might be a chance of getting in and out without developing a sore throat and a blinding headache.

Grrrr.

^I recommend attending some minor league games. You can still find some purity there, at least the last time I tried it.

Scott

The Rambler wrote:

Is Pujols injured, and not telling anyone? I can't recall that guy ever having a slump.

I don't think he's injured. It's just a slow start to the season (he's done that once or twice before). He usually has his slumps, along with a lot of other guys, in late July-August, and then picks it up again at the end of the season. I'm sure he'll still finish with his usual .300, 30 hr, and 100 rbi, but you like the see the guys tearing it up right at the beginning of the season.



Patrick - I'm generally with you (baseball's the only pro sport I still watch) and I only go to games anymore to take someone else/event/etc. To actually enjoy a game, I head to downtown Greenville where we have a Class A affliate of the Red Sox. Tickets are cheap, the local beer is good, and you don't feel like you're part of a circus.

We used to have the Pittsfield (Mass.) Mets in the short season NY-Penn. League, but they went to Brooklyn. They played in a ramshackle old park. Jim Bouton was involved with a group that tried to rehab it but got nowhere i Pittsfield, a city that operates from a municipal resentment at GE for closing 30 years ago or so. Any civic improvement is viewed with great suspicion, of not hostility? "What?! You want to actually DO something?!"

In Torrington, Conn. there is a Futures Collegiate Baseball League team, the Titans. (They replace the Twisters from the New England Collegiate Baseball League, which I think folded.) The FCBL is a wooden bat league. The players bunk in with families. It's pretty good ball, and the price is right.

http://www.torringtontitans.com/view/to ... -tickets-1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futures_Co ... all_League

Nope, the NECBL is still going strong

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Englan ... all_League

My route home from the office goes past a good local prep school that plays in the Inter-Ac league, which occasionally produces a major leaguer. I often stop, when a game's on. The Reading Phillies, AA, is about 40 mins away, and well worth the pilgrimage. I'd put Phillies fans right up there with Mets fans for "you suck" -type brainless fan behavior, the beers (lite only) are $7.50, the PA is squawking idiocy all the time, etc. If they were as disappointing as the Mets, I might be a little sour on it too, but as it is ....

Most of my spring Saturdays are spent at Swayze Field in Oxford watching Ole Miss play ball. It's a great park, one of the best in the nation, but the BBQ Nachos are eight bucks, a corndog for the boy is five, and a bottle of water is four (no beer sold). Ole Miss is terrible this year, a drastic change from recent seasons when we were host for Regional and SuperRegional rounds of the CWS.

I find myself just as much at the little league park where I help coach my son's team. He's on the Braves this year.

Hey Mud,

Is there much of a Cardinals following in MS? At one time (1930s-1960s?), if I remember correctly, the Cardinals had the largest radio network in the country spread throughout the South, much of the Midwest, and some of the West. I assume once the Braves moved down here and television became more popular the Cardinals following slowly died out. I don't find too many Cardinals fans in South Carolina.

Cards,

Among the older generation, accordingly, there seems to be quite a contingent of Cardinals fans. My father-in-law is a great example; he's 72 this year and follows them all season. As you noted though, there are far more Braves fans throughout the Mid-South. Fandom of pro baseball pales, however, in comparison to SEC football. We are all quite serious about our college football.

Damn those Marlins. Great pitching by Josh Johnson, though.

Cardinals5 wrote:

Hey Mud,

Is there much of a Cardinals following in MS? At one time (1930s-1960s?), if I remember correctly, the Cardinals had the largest radio network in the country spread throughout the South, much of the Midwest, and some of the West. I assume once the Braves moved down here and television became more popular the Cardinals following slowly died out. I don't find too many Cardinals fans in South Carolina.

My father (a lifelong Tennesseean, age 71) still remains a bit of a Cards fan for just the reason you state - clear channel radio during his boyhood. My family was actually huge fans of Cincinnatti's Big Red Machine back in their '70s heyday. Our home is about equidistant between Atlanta and Cincinnatti. Cable TV and WTBS in particular put the Braves into everybody's den in the 80s, and I think that solidified the Braves' hold on the South. That and some long-awaited success. And Dale Murphy.

Scott