The Pastime

Though the Mets and Cardinals played on Sunday night, I consider today to be the real first day of the baseball season. Go check out my article on interesting Opening Day performances on Beyond the Boxscore; it’ll help you impress your friends while you watch the games all day. There are a few genuinely intriguing games on the schedule today, but here’s a reason to watch each game on the docket:

• Braves and Phillies: A matchup of the old guard of the NL East (Atlanta) and my pick to take the division this season (Philadelphia). Everyone will be watching Ryan Howard, and for good reason. Last Opening Day, he hit a home run — the first of 58 on the season.
• Marlins and Nationals: Dontrelle Willis is pitching. The enthusiasm for the game, the funky delivery, the million-dollar smile and the nice slider-fastball combo are all good reasons to watch him pitch. The Nationals aren’t a very good team this year, but SP John Patterson and 3B Ryan Zimmerman should shine for the cellar-bound team.
• Devil Rays and Yankees: In one of the stranger moves of the past few months, Carl Pavano will get the ball as the Yankees Opening Day starter. He’ll face Scott Kazmir, and knowing Pavano, he’ll be out of the game with an injury be the 4th inning.
• Blue Jays and Tigers: Can Frank Thomas find his bat against Detroit? He lost in completely in the ALCS. Speaking of the postseason and Tigers… will the Tiger pitchers have learned how to field by now? Since the game is in Detroit, we’ll have to wait and see if Frank Thomas’s fragile foot falls off when it hits the artificial turf in Toronto.
• Indians and White Sox: The AL Central could be a toss-up between four teams this season. With the Tigers, Twins, White Sox and Indians all improved contenders, any intra-division games will be worth watching. Plus, any time Pronk comes to the plate, you’ve got to pay attention. Travis Hafner can flat-out hit.
• Dodgers and Brewers: While the Dodgers are the popular pick to win the NL West, the Brewers are the trendy sleeper pick in the weak NL Central. Major League offspring Prince Fielder and Tony Gwynn, Jr. will delight fans of early 90’s baseball as they try and revitalize the Brew Crew.
• Cubs and Reds: Cincinnati is the traditional home of Opening Day, and what better opponent to kick off the season with than one of the most tradition-rich clubs in all of sports. The Cubs are trying to buy their way out of the cellar, while the Reds will try and avoid tanking after a promising start once again.
• Dbacks and Rockies: Recently both Colorado and Arizona have been known more for their tourist destinations than the quality of baseball being played there. Thanks to some excellent young hitting talent for both clubs (Chris Iannetta, Troy Tulowitzki, Stephen Drew, Chris Young, Conor Jackson), both the new-look Dbacks and the still-purple Rockies should be very competitive in 2007.
• Red Sox and Royals: Wonderboy Alex Gordon will get his first Major League at-bat less than two years after playing third base for Nebraska in the College World Series. He’ll have to face Curt Schilling on national TV, but so far Gordon has exceeded all expectations placed on him. I’m betting on a good game for the Nebraska native.
• A’s and Mariners: If you’re not a huge A’s fan — like I am — you may think that there’s not much reason to be interested in this game. Of course, you’d be mistaken, as two of the top young pitchers in the American League face off, as Dan Haren starts opposite Felix Hernandez. Hernandez had an inflated ERA last season, but pitched very well. Dan Haren posted very good numbers across the board, and is only improving. You’ll be reading both of their names atop Cy Young voting for years to come, so why not catch on now?
• Orioles and Twins: It’s Cy Young-winner Johan Santana, AL MVP Justin Morneau, AL batting title-holder Joe Mauer, and a very mediocre Orioles team. It’s indoor baseball on Opening Day — an abomination, if you ask me — but it’s nationally televised, so you’ll watch anyway.
• Pirates and Astros: I really can’t find much to say about this game, but at least the Pirates won’t be wearing their horrible red alternate jerseys. The bandbox of a park they’ve got down in Houston looks like a nice place to watch a game, but you can’t respect a field where bleeders to right field end up home runs. Roy Oswalt is pitching, though, trying to earn himself another bulldozer, while Craig Biggio is doing his best to get closer to the 3,000 hits he’ll reach this season.
• Rangers and Angels: Kevin Millwood and John Lackey “face off” — even though the two pitchers won’t be on the field at the same time. At the very least, you can expect to see Slammin’ Steroidin’ Sammy Sosa strike out three times…

This entry was posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2007 at 3:27 am and is filed under General Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.