Play Ball!

[sdelmonte]

At long last.  Baseball season is here!  Yeah, the football team I follow won the Super Bowl and the basketball team I follow had Linsanity.  But I would rather watch a mediocre, under-funded baseball team than even the best football team on Earth.

Which is good, because my beloved Mets have a tiny payroll, no bench, lots of players with histories of injuries, and owners that everyone but me seems to hate.  Odds are that the Mets will finish last, below .500, and play to a half-empty stadium.  I can’t deny that.  But it’s April, and in April every team starts over from scratch.  So I come to the season full of hope that Johan Santana stays healthy, that Daniel Murphy learns to field half as well as he hits, that RA Dickey remains awesome on and off the field, that the handful of highly touted prospects begin to do great things, that the new dimensions of Citi Field revive David Wright, that sometimes the Mets will be fun.

I suspect my hopes will be dashed sometime around July 1.  Maybe sooner, given the quality of the rest of the division.  But right now, I am ready for some baseball, and looking forward to a visit or two to the ballpark.

As for the rest of the sport…

NL East – Phils, Marlins, Braves, Nats, Mets

NL Central – Cards, Brewers, Reds, Pirates, Cubs, Astros

NL West – D-Backs, Giants, Dodgers, Rockies, Padres

NL Wild Cards – Marlins, Giants

NL Champ – Cards

 

AL East – Rays, Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles

AL Central – Tigers, Indians, Twins, Royals, White Sox

AL West – Rangers, Angels, A’s, Mariners

AL Wild Cards – Yankees, Angels

AL Champ – Rangers
 

World Series Champ – Rangers, at long last