Happy Opening Day

As I have gotten older, my sports interests have narrowed greatly. Now, the only sport that I follow on a semi-regular basis is Major League Baseball. Today is Opening Day. So, this is a special day in our world. MLB finally got it right. The games in Japan last week notwithstanding, today is a true Opening Day. All teams play today. All teams play day games, the way God intended it. It’s still chilly outside, but with baseball season getting in full swing, the weather should warm up nicely in the coming weeks. I love baseball because it is a constant, daily companion. There’s always a game every day, and with our dual rooting interests in the Yankees and Mets, rarely are they off on the same day. In my personal quest for digital minimalism (see previous post), I have disabled all notifications from my phone … with two exceptions, one of them being the MLB At-Bat app (the other, of course, is Accuweather). So … here we go. Baseball every day. Scores and stats to check. Things to discuss. Having just read several preview articles while my youngest son was getting a root canal (yeah … I know …), here are my takes on 2019:

--My beloved Yankees will be good. Really good. But not as good as the hated Red Sox (yeah, Tosh, they’ll be better).

--My equally beloved Mets will disappoint us once again. Strong pitching, yes; still-too-weak lineup, also yes. Bad news? Not really ... it means cheap seats aplenty at Citi Field starting in July!

--Smart-aleck manager Joe Maddon of the Cubs will get his comeuppance this year (he's really smart, but I've never been a fan ... because he's the first to tell you how smart he is!). The NL Central is the most intriguing division, with no bad teams and all decent to good teams.

--The Rays will not be as good as everyone thinks. Their “opener” strategy will backfire from overuse.

--The Orioles and Marlins will be bad. Really bad.

--The Astros are probably the most complete team in the majors, slightly better than the Red Sox and the Dodgers. The Phillies will be really, really good, and will make it to the World Series … where they will lose to the Astros. In 6 games.

Please feel free to refer to this post often throughout the spring and summer to see how stupid I really am. Play ball!