2013 MLB Thread -- Return of the boys of Summer!

Redsox tickets on sale today, my wife is in the virtual waiting room. This marks the official beginning of happy baseball time for our family. Here are some other benchmarks coming soon:

• February 5, Truck Day. The equipment trucks leave Fenway Park for Florida
• February 10, pitchers and catchers report!
• February 15, first full team workout
• February 21, first Spring Training games (against Boston college teams)
• February 23, first Grapefruit League games
• April 1, opening day
• April 8, opening day at Fenway

I'm already giddy for the return of the greatest game. On the more personal level, my three kids will all be playing in youth leagues and I'll be coaching one of their teams. There is going to be a lot of baseball going on for my family a few months from now!

Hard to believe baseball season's coming up again ... so soon!

I like how you take your list to the end of happy baseball time for a 2013 Red Sox fan.

Not that I expect great things from the Yankees this season, but at least it's still a realistic hope. And at least you're not a Mets fan--they have no happy baseball time at all!

I'll be very happy if the Redsox play above .500, but will enjoy the season either way. I am not a sunshine only fan. I actually think the Redsox could squeak in to the post season, but everything will have to go just right, which is unlikely.

I'm a Jets fan. I can appreciate being a "not a sunshine only" fan. I'd be wary of the Red Sox sneaking into the playoffs this year--sneaking into the playoffs in 2000 was one of the worst things to ever happen to the Mets. Of course the Mets front office is completely retarded, but still, the lure of thinking you're almost there when you're not has trapped many other front offices over the years . . .

Aquehonga agrees: Snuck into the playoffs only to end up like the '89 baseball Jints.

I liked the '89 Giants -- Will Clark, Robby Thompson, Brett Butler, Rick Reuschel, Craig Lefferts. But Kevin Mitchell and their pitching staff started to decline and they struggled in 1991 and 1992. It took signing Baroid Bonds for them to start doing well again.

The truck is loaded, and ready to spend a couple days on I-95. Fort Meyers, get ready for some baseball!

IGNORE POST!

POSTED BY MISTAKE.

I'm more excited this year than I've been since the Glory Days - though I was quite optimistic last year until the Week From Hell in June.

Still, it's weird. Back in the Glory Days, I ASSUMED the Jays were a juggernaut who were entitled to be players for the Paul Molitors of the world. It had been earned by building up a strong string of successful seasons and a rabid fanbase.

Now, having added more talent by far than any other team in the offseason, it feels kind of...strange. Not to be a favorite per se, but to be a favorite based on having added 5 outstanding imports (at least)

Still, I'm gonna enjoy the hell out of it if things go as planed.

Aquehonga agrees: Interesting historical tidbit. For a short time decades ago the Phillies were called the "Blue Jays". LONG before Toronto's.

I did, in fact, know that. Believe it or not.

My Astros will be seeking their third consecutive #1 overall draft pick. Can't wait.

Luckily for Toronto the name didn't stick.

IIRC/AFAIK the Yankees were the first visiting team in/to/at the Astrodome, playing the then newly christened Astros (formerly the Colt 45s for those not in-the-know) in a preseason exhibition game.

IIRC, Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run...In Toronto!

(for a minor league team of course)

Not MLB, but today was "pitchers report" day for my daughter's softball league. It felt really good to get that hour of work in with her and the other girls. I have a bit of rust to clear off my own glove I have to say.

For the first time in twenty five years I couldn't care less what they do.

The sale of the team has left a corporate conglomeration of less than ideal business sense. I can say no more and will have to leave it at that.

I wish them well but the days of root-root-rooting are gone-gone-gone.

Looking at the opening day box score . . .this will be a brutal year for the Yankees if they don't get a lot of good news about recoveries from injuries really soon. Five or six guys in the lineup--depending on how you view Ichiro at this point--who simply aren't major league starting hitters. Now batting number 5 for the Yankees, the worst position player in MLB, owner of a comically bad qualifying .248 OBP in 2011! And if Sabathia struggling to hit 90 on the radar gun is any indication of how the pitching will go they're going to need all the hitting they can get.

Don't be so hard on the Yankees. The Redsox gave them a tough game. Solid pitching with aggressive base running wins ball games.

The Giants were shut out today. I knew it would be a tough game when Cain threw over 30 pitches in the first inning. He pitched six shutout innings, but if it weren't for the first inning he could have gone 1-2 more innings. Oh well - 161 games to go.

I for one can not wait to laugh at the misery that is the Florida Marlins.

The team and the league and a bunch of idiot politicians raped Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami and everyone is getting paid back in spades!

A team destroyed by the owner. A stadium in one of the crappiest parts of Miami. It's been a year and they've yet to rent a single store space to anyone. (store space is under the garages) Who the hell is going to pay to park their car and then walk out of the garage onto a dirty street to go shopping? NO ONE.

Team fans were not in Miami but in Broward and no one is going to go to the stadium and it's tiny roads that lead into the stadium which cause massive traffic jams. The stadium is not close enough to any highway. Not like Dolphin Stadium which is easily accessible from the Turnpike and I-95 and even the Palmetto.

The team reported they were having trouble selling season tickets. They've gone from 12,000 in 2012 to 5,000 for 2013. They sold 600,000 less tickets then the 2,000,000 tickets WORST CASE SCENARIO plan for 2012.

They are refusing to say they will sell out for opening day.

Oh and like the gift that keeps on giving......

There is a couple who've been season ticket holders since 1998. They moved into the new stadium with the team but the Marlins screwed them by putting stuff in front of them that wrecks their view. They demanded they be moved or they would stop paying for the season tickets and the Marlins have made threats to sue them. You can barely sell season tickets and you're pissing off fans who've been with you since 1998? And according to the reports this couple is paying $25,000 a year for their seats.

It's wonderful.......

$2.5+ Billion dollars wasted on this and it's the taxpayers taking it up the ass for the whole fucking amount and the taxpayers didn't even get to vote on it......

Cardinals end the season at home against the Cubs. That could be quite a series if either team is in the playoff hunt . . .

The Cardinals are likely enough to be in the hunt, but the Cubs are the Cubs and might as well be the Astros or the Colt 45s.

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Been too damn long coming.


Meanwhile, I have to wait until the last "first game" of the new season to see the new-era Blue Jays give it a go.

Worst of all? Loria had already run this scam once (ask any Expo fan if you can find one) - they had every reason to see it coming.

The Dodgers put on a show, for their first game under the new ownership.

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If only there were an afterlife; I can't think of anything that would be more entertaining right now than the hissy fit of the ghost of George Steinbrenner.

Shane Victorino had a similar wall collision on Sunday afternoon trying to catch a homerun. I wasn't far from that spot, and the thump sounded like some boards action at a hockey game. He immediately collapsed back on to the field, but ultimately stayed in to complete the inning.

Pete Rose is the man!

Hooray for the Pirates for securing a winning season!

The Royals are just a game back of the Yankees in the wild card chase, but the Royals were losing as of an hour or so ago, so I doubt that'll last.

The Yankees probably won't make it anyway. I'm hoping to see Baltimore take over the 2nd slot in the next couple of days. I really can't stand the Rays.