BATTER UP: Today, baseball truly begins anew, and as part of our ongoing Symposium on the National Pastime, our bloggers offer these hopes for the 2008 season:
Bob: Regarding this season, I do not share the wild optimism of many about the chances of the Red Sox. I have in mind perhaps 90 wins and a shot at the wild card. Injuries, heavy reliance on young players, and the toll of time on many of the team’s aging stars are the source of my concern. I fear the Yankees as always. If I had to bet on a team from the AL, it would be the Tigers, with the Angels a close second. I don’t think they are ready for a run at the World Series yet, but I would not be surprised to see the Rays have an excellent season.
I don’t follow the NL as closely as I do the AL. I am yearning for the Phillies to make it back to the playoffs, but I fear the Mets will be a better team this year. It is very hard for me to get excited about any of the NL Central or NL West teams simply because those divisions were so weak last year. I rather admire the style of baseball that the Rockies played last year. I also have a soft spot in my heart for the Brewers and I think they will be solid contenders in the Central.
TPE: This year I have no reason whatever to think the Giants can make a run at it, not with two NLCS teams and an improved Dodgers club in the way. The Giants stink. But that will let me worry about something much more important: getting Owen to a few games this year. The first time I went to a professional baseball game with my father was the day after I graduated from law school. Not that I wasn't loved and well provided for, but I've always envied my friends who can't remember not going to the ballpark with their Dad. With Owen turning four this August -- and where he's beginning to make some real long-term memories -- I'll want him (and in a few years, Natalie) to have some with his Old Man at a ball game.
Also, other than the occasional firm tickets -- I gave up my own Giants season ticket this year -- I think this year I'll hit a AA-Stockton Ports game or two. Cheaper and a damned sight more fun than the bigs.
Isaac: What I’m hoping for this baseball season: 1. For poltergeists to continue bewitching (is that a mixed metaphor? Beghosting?) the Anaheim roster, such that the offense- and defense- (but not pitching-) deprived Mariners continue to benefit through no fault of their idiot management, all the way to a drawn-out playoff format where Bedard and Felix could start most of the games. 2. For Adam Jones to prove in Baltimore that he is better offensively (no proof necessary defensively) than Raul Ibanez, Richie Sexson, Jose Vidro, and Willie Bloomquist, and for Chris Snelling to find his way somehow to a major-league roster that can use his talents. 3. For Felix Hernandez to be the player he was the first two (pre-injury) games last year.
4. For somebody to provide a cogent explanation for why an ostensibly professionally-run organization would simultaneously adopt the following philosophies: (a) short-relief pitchers must almost always be pulled to avoid pitching against opposite-handed batters, even if they are murder on those batters; and (b) position players must never be platooned, even if their statistics demonstrate a measurable or even preposterous platoon split. 5. For an end to the trend of pine-tar-blackened batting helmets. The only acceptable cause for pine tar on the front of a batting helmet is “running headlong into a pine tree.”
I would also hope that we could go a year without anybody saying or writing anything about ERA, pitchers’ W-L records, “statheads” or “computer geeks” or similarly willfully ignorant epithets, chemistry, or Derek Jeter’s clutchiness and stellar defense.
Adam: For me, it's simple -- I want Phillies-Mets to be elevated to a rivalry of Sawks-Yanks, Cubs-Cards and Dodgers-Giants proportions. I want that intensity in the park and throughout the city whenever they're playing. I want more games like August 30, 2007. And, yes, I want to be back in the World Series for the first time in fifteen years, because I still believe in the audacity of Phillies' hope.
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