The only undefeated team in Major League Baseball?
The Baltimore Orioles!!!
They’ve won four games by a combined total of five runs.
Oakland played their own home opener, played Texas’s home opener, and are on their way to play Kansas City’s home opener.
I think the Astros would like Manfred to institute some sort of rule that allows them to skip over eighth innings when playing the Royals.
And for the Mets, runs are still as scarce as Chinese policemen (to quote a classic, less than ethnically correct line by Ring Lardner).
Queens is where bats go to die.
Yesterday was weird. The two best pitchers in the NLWest, who play for the two teams that will dominate the division year after year, get hammered by the two teams that usually finish dead last, not only in the division but often in the league.
Sometimes, you win. Sometimes, you lose. Sometimes, you get rained out. But that’s why you have to suit up for every game.
If you’re talking about Madison Bumgarner, he was hardly hammered.
He lost. For Bumgarner, that’s a hammering! 
I’m come to accept that Major League Baseball as an entertainment choice is no longer something I can enjoy as a live event on any sort of regular basis. That was not the case in the past, but it is now. It’s not that I have less money; we do very well. But the price of taking my family to a Blue Jays game is extraordinarily high, unless we do everything as preposterously cheap as possible. It’s a significant amount of money, something I’d rather save to help me take my wife on an all inclusive tropical vacation.
Last year just my wife and I were going to see a game and took one look at the prices and realized that for the price of one ticket we could watch the game in HD glory in a fine sports bar and have dinner and drinks just minutes from our house, and so we did.
Still, 3-million-plus went to see the Jays last year so someone is going. Attendance has been more or less the same in MLB since, I dunno, ten years ago, and they’re ten of the best attended years ever. Is this a rich/poor thing? Urban/suburban divide? I am not sure, but I am literally the most passionate and devoted fan and student of baseball I personally know - well, Archi Zuber may have me beat - and I just can’t afford the time and money to go see my favourite team, whose stadium is 30 miles from my house. Sure, I’m a busy guy, a father and a professional man, but that must mean something.
I feel your pain RJ. A day at the ballpark, with good seats, is a luxury. And it is tragic.
But, I have never regretting going to a MLB game. And it is a special event.
I just wish there could be more of them.
I don’t like Buck Schowalter, but I give him credit, since he’s been there the O’s have been masters of the one run game.
Anyone watching the Cubs home opener?
Maybe its just because there was already a two-hour rain delay, but man is this pre-game ceremony dragging on. At this rate, the game will be over tomorrow afternoon. Is nobody thinking about the starting pitchers?
Or maybe I’m just too eager to see the Dodgers beat them.
The Giants home opener was a production also.
I saw that Posey took one in the melon but little else.
I watched it for about 5 minutes and then switched over to Antiques Roadshow on PBS. How about the gold metal flake embossed names and numbers on the back of the Cub player jerseys? Talk about tacky. All they needed was ruby red shoes with little white wings around their ankles.
And since when do the Cubs play the Dodgers in Chicago in an April night game? Its all so contrived.
The gold on the jerseys is, of course, a gimmick to sell more Cubs merchandise to fans that have already bought every single World Series item. I’ve gotten 1 million emails promoting them as a limited time special.
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The Yankees victory yesterday was a thing of beauty. Pineda went 6 2/3 perfect innings. I was worried about having Sanchez out, but Romine called a great game and at least is a more than adequate backup catcher. Carter may well take Bird’s job from him at first. Great pitching, good hitting, flawless defense. After a slow start, this team looks poised to make some noise this year.
I was a Cubs fan for decades. Not so much anymore nor every again.
Ah, the enigma that is Michael Pineda. He led AL starters with 10.6 strikeouts per 9 last season, had a FIP of 3.79, but an ERA of 4.82. Most of his punch outs yesterday were swinging; the hitters looked over-matched. Man I wish he could put it all together.
Great opener, though. If Carter takes the job from Bird then that would be a backwards step. Bring on the kids.
Posey gets plunked in the head in the first inning of the Giants’ home opener (which they won, thank Ghu). Here’s hoping he’s okay.
One of the things I love about Baseball References is you click ona f ew things and boom, you’ve learned something new.
I started by looking up the career numbers for Buster Posey, and then I ended up on Fred McGriff. I’m not sure how that happened, but anyway, here’s something; Fred McGriff had a 30-homer season for five different teams. No shit. He did it for Toronto three times, for San Diego twice, and for Atlanta, Tampa Bay, and the Cubs. (He also had two years where he hit more than 30 homers split between two of those teams.) Isn’t that amazing?