It's a shame that Opening Day was rained out today. I had tickets to the game, arrived two hours early, and was anticipating the start of a new year. Unfortunately, baseball was not played today.
It was supposed to be Chien-Ming Wang versus Roy Halladay. The lineups were set, the players were ready, the coaches were ready, and the stadium was ready. But the rain kept coming, and even when it briefly stopped at about 2:20 p.m., P.A. announcer Jim Hall announced the cancellation of the game.
"I don't think you ever know how you're going to react," Girardi said before the game. "I think I reacted a lot different when I walked out for the first time at Yankee Stadium than I thought I would. I think I was like, 'Wow, this is really awesome.' As a Midwestern boy, not growing up in that area, you didn't really understand the greatness of it until you walk in there."
I think Girardi has definitely been accepted by the fans. At one point today, he walked onto the field in the middle of the rain, and he got a huge ovation from the crowd.
Opening Day will resume tomorrow night at 7:05 p.m. It won't be the same. The crowd will be half as large. But Opening Day is still Opening Day, no matter how long it takes.
1) Dayn Perry of foxsports.com listed his top ten questions for 2008. They are:
- Can the Red Sox repeat?
- Will the Cubs end a century of failure?
- Can the Mets stay healthy?
- Will the Yankees' young starters do the job?
- Do the Tigers have enough pitching?
- Can the Pirates avoid making history?
- Will Randy Johnson get to 300 wins?
- What will become of Barry Bonds?
- Who will be this year's surprise team?
- Will the Wests be wild?
2) Meanwhile, Joel Sherman of the Post listed MLB's best, worst, and most overrated. The list went like this:
Five Best All-Around Players
Alex Rodriguez
Albert Pujols
Ichiro Suzuki
Hanley Ramirez
David Wright
Five Best Starters
Johan Santana
Josh Beckett
Brandon Webb
Jake Peavy
Justin Verlander
Five Best Closers
Jonathan Papelbon
Mariano Rivera
Joe Nathan
Francisco Rodriguez
J.J. Putz
Five Best Managers
Terry Francona
Jim Leyland
Mike Scioscia
Joe Torre
Bobby Cox
Five Best General Managers
Dave Dombrowski
Kevin Towers
Theo Epstein
Mark Shapiro
Josh Byrnes
Five Best Teams
Red Sox
Yankees
Tigers
Indians
Angels
Five Worst Teams
Orioles
Giants
Astros
Pirates
Cardinals
Five Most Underrated Players
Aaron Harang
Adrian Gonzalez
Tom Gordon
Placido Polanco
Russell Martin
Five Most Overrated Players
Kerry Wood
Barry Zito
Dontrelle Willis
Aaron Rowand
Jason Bay
3) The Devil Rays demoted touted prospect Evan Longoria to the minors, a move that is baffling everyone in the baseball world. "They just sent out the American League Rookie of the Year," says one executive. "Certain guys like that, they just stand out. There's no reason for him to go back." The Rays say that they want Longoria to complete his development in the minors, similar to what the Brewers did with Ryan Braun last year. The move certainly is puzzling, but it might just work out for the better.
4) As I was looking over possible opening day lineups for teams, I came across the Dodgers. Try and guess who the opening day third baseman is. Nomar Garciaparra? Wrong. Tony Abreu? Sorry. Andy LaRoche? Wrong again. No, in fact, the starting third baseman will be a player by the name of Blake DeWitt, who has zero AAA experience and just 299 at bats in AA. Still, the Dodgers are confident in DeWitt's abilities. I give him a month till he's demoted.
5) After the Red Sox won their first game in Japan on a late home run from Brandon Moss, New England papers went crazy. "New England's Other Moss" was the popular title in many Boston newspapers. Moss, 24, is now being hyped as the next big thing in Boston. In fact, he's learning how to play first base in addition to the outfield, which would increase his value. Is he the next big thing in Boston? Not yet. But don't be surprised if we see a late-inning hit from him against the Yankees at some point during the year.
Who's Hot: Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, Phil Hughes, LaTroy Hawkins
Who's Not: Andy Pettitte, Scott Patterson, Hideki Matsui, Jason Lane
Quote of the Week: "It was great. It was nice. We wished each other good luck. He said, 'We move on.'" - Yankee manager Joe Girardi on his meeting with Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria.
Link of the Week: Click here
The opening day roster has finally been set. Here it is:
Lineup:
Johnny Damon LF
Derek Jeter SS
Bobby Abreu RF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Jason Giambi 1B
Jorge Posada C
Hideki Matsui DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Melky Cabrera CF
Bench:
Jose Molina C
Shelley Duncan IF/OF
Morgan Ensberg IF
Wilson Betemit IF
Starters:
Chien-Ming Wang
Mike Mussina
Phil Hughes
Ian Kennedy
Relievers:
Mariano Rivera
Joba Chamberlain
LaTroy Hawkins
Kyle Farnsworth
Billy Traber
Ross Ohlendorf
Brian Bruney
Jon Albaladejo
60-Day Disabled List:
Andrew Brackman
Humberto Sanchez
Carl Pavano
15-Day Disabled List:
Andy Pettitte
Jeff Karstens
Sean Henn
Additions From Last Year: Hawkins, Albaladejo, Traber, Ensberg
Things I Like:
1) Albaladejo; I think he can be a difference maker if he pitches well
2) The bench
3) The power of the middle of the lineup
4) The bridge to Rivera (Hawkins, Chamberlain)
Things I Don't Like:
1) Matsui hitting seventh
2) Giambi hitting fifth
3) The starting rotation without Pettitte
4) Cano hitting eighth
5) Lack of speed
Reggie Jackson had the most career four-strikeout games, with 23.
The rest of the top ten included Bo Jackson (19), Sammy Sosa (17), Rob Deer (17), Jose Canseco (16), Jim Thome (15), Dave Kingman (15), Andres Galaragga (15), Dick Allen (15), and Reggie Sanders (14).
I came across a great article in the Times today about Bob Sheppard.
Basically, Sheppard had a bad case of bronchitis last year that caused him to miss the playoffs. His weight ended up dropping to 103, and his health was not good. However, after treatment this offseason, he has recovered well. He will probably return to his normal P.A. role sometime in June or July. Until that time, Jim Hall will take over the role. Hall is expected to be Sheppard's successor.
Sheppard recently signed a two-year contract with the Yankees, which will take him into the new stadium. He is thought to be in his late 90s.
Andy Pettitte is scheduled to pitch in a minor league game on Sunday, the AP reports.
Pettitte was originally going to start the team's second game of the year on April 2nd, but he has been slowed by back spasms. Hopefully, Pettitte will be able to make his first regular-season start towards the end of next week.
"We're going to see how it feels and try and stretch it out," Pettitte said. "Then figure out what I'm going to do after that game."
Pettitte added: "I woke up this morning and I can definitely say it felt as good today as it did yesterday, and maybe even a little bit better. The bullpen yesterday didn't set me back at all. So that was a positive."
In Sports Illustrated this week, Tom Verducci mentioned the possibility of Pettitte and Wang being used for an inning or two out of the bullpen every now and then on their throwing days to take some pressure off the bullpen. Pettitte did this twice last year, and Verducci believes it would be a good idea if Pettitte and Wang did this several times throughout the year. It's an interesting thing to consider.
Courtesy of baseball-reference.com-
Dave Kingman hit the most home runs in a final season, when he hit 35 in 1986 at the age of 37. No player other than Kingman has ever hit more than 30 home runs in his final season.
Paul O'Neill hit 21 home runs in 2001, which marks the most ever by a Yankee in his final season.
Over the last few days, I've noticed a few odd happenings around baseball. For example:
- The Yankees lost yesterday's game 7-5. All seven runs were unearned. How often does that happen?
- Roger Clemens was offered $25 per game by the Huntsville Stars to work as "Rocket," one of the Double A team's mascots. I'd say that's a big downgrade from his $28 million, pro-rated salary from last year.
- Only six games this century have started and ended in the A.M. hour (eastern standard time). Two of those games have occurred within the last 48 hours.
- Foxsports.com had an article on Gulf Coast League first baseman Wady Rufino, who began the year with the Scranton Yankees but has recently been demoted to the Charleston Riverdogs. Wady Rufino. That name is up there with the best of them, ala Coco Crisp, Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Ugeth Urbina and Creepy Crespi.
In baseball's earliest start to a season ever, the Red Sox beat the Athletics 6-5 in ten innings.
I woke up this morning not expecting to see any of the game, but lucky for me, my AP Bio teacher was out the first two periods of the day. Our sub let us play the game via mlb.tv, and we projected it on the board so the whole class could watch. It will probably be the last time I will ever see a game at school.
The real Opening Day is next Monday, just five days away. It's the start of 162 games over 180 days. Enjoy it.
The highest salary in baseball last year wasn't Alex Rodriguez. It wasn't Derek Jeter. It wasn't Manny Ramirez. It wasn't Roger Clemens. It wasn't...well, it wasn't who you'd think it would be.
Click here and scroll down to find out who it was.
