Musings On MLB 2012

Sometimes it's nice being a baseball fan.  We get 162 games a year and our off-season is considerably short compared to most (well if your team makes it to the playoffs, that is).  And yet, I feel like I've been waiting for the 2012 season for a lifetime.  And while my friends probably aren't ready to lose me to my MLB At Bat app on my phone, I am beyond ready for some baseball.  With Opening Day just around the corner (this Thursday!), I thought I would make a few observations about the upcoming season:

Let's just get this one out of the way - the Miami Marlins, really?  Why fix something that ain't broke?  That will take some getting used to.

2012 is the last season that the Astros will be in the National League.  This has been a bit disconcerting to me ever since they announced we would be moving to the AL West in 2013.  I found it pretty stupid when the Brewers moved to the NL back in 1998, and even stupider that they didn't just move them back this time around.  I never really realized how much league loyalty I had until now.  Or how much I hate the idea of a designated hitter.  I love having the pitchers bat.  It makes for some exciting moments (like in 2006 when Roy Oswalt and Andy Pettitte hit home runs on two consecutive nights - to date, their only career HRs), and in my opinion, it makes guys earn their keep.  I am not a fan of paying a guy millions of dollars for 4 or 5 at bats a game and NOTHING ELSE.  Especially if he can't even bat above .300.  I feel like the DH role is where baseball players go to die.  So I guess at least it'll give Carlos Lee something to do.  Anyway, I am glad I have a whole season to get my head around the move, but I don't think I'll ever be really excited about it.

The one positive thing that I took from the upcoming AL move is that at least we wouldn't have to face Albert Pujols (the Kryptonite to our Superman, if you will) but a couple of times a year at best.  But, as luck would have it, he signed a record-breaking $254 million/10-year deal with the Angels (I'll save my thoughts on the stupidity of that contract for another blog), who just so happen to be in the AL West.  So we really should enjoy this season because after 2012, we'll be seeing him a whole bunch.

I am excited about the new Astros owner, Jim Crane.  I am a big Drayton McLane fan, don't get me wrong, and I have a lot of respect for him as a man and as a Christ-follower, but his "let's blow our budget on washed-up superstars and trade away our farm system every year" mentality was getting pretty tired.  I am pretty hopeful that Crane is going to do more to develop our up-and-coming players.  Even though these next couple of seasons will be a time of restructuring and rebuilding, I think there are happy days ahead.  I'm excited to see some of our young talent develop this year.  We've got a number one pick in June and we've acquired a lot of young players through trades last year and in the off-season.  I'm particularly excited to have Jason Castro back from ACL surgery, and to see what Jonathan Singleton and Jarred Cosart are going to bring to the table in Corpus Christi.  And mark my words, Delino DeShields is the guy to watch this year.  I think we'll see him in OKC by the end of the season, and maybe even in the big show come September.

The schedule this year is not going to be too kind to me.  There are games in DC and Philadelphia, but they are during the week, so it's unlikely I'll be able to go to them.  It may be the end of August (when they have a series with the Mets) before I'll get to see them play live. Boooooooo.

Wandy is getting his first Opening Day start.  Not sure if that is the smartest move they could've made (I personally would've gone with Bud Norris or maybe even J.A. Happ), but when he's good, he's realllll good, so it could work out for us.

Alright, well that's all of my scattered baseball-related thoughts for now.  Hope everyone is as excited for Opening Day as I am, but I doubt you are. :-)  Happy April!

Still Not A Yankee Fan (Or a Mets fan, for that matter...)

Well, I bet you thought this post was never coming...a big reason why I started this blog was to talk about baseball, so it's time to get back to my roots here. :-)

As I mentioned in earlier posts, back in April, both the Rangers and Astros came to town in the same week.   At the time, I had been in New York for about a month, was right in the middle of my job search, and was feeling a little blah.  Some Texas baseball was just what I needed.  On Friday, April 15th (my one month NYC anniversary), I had my one-day at One Medical, which was basically like an all-day interview.  As soon as it was over, I jetted off to meet Leticia and head to Yankee stadium (where we would meet up with Sara and Andrew) for the Yankees/Rangers game.  Back in December 2005, on my very first trip to New York, Kristi, Shahla, Ashley, and I had taken a tour of the old Yankee stadium, but I had never been to a game (or to the new stadium).  It was pretty nice (though if I had to choose, I would say I'm a little partial to the old one...).

We got in and found our seats...

...then it was time to go get my hot dog on.

Ok, I feel like I need to stop and give you a little background here.  There are very few things I love more than a ball park hot dog.  It is like the missing piece of the puzzle that allows me to enjoy the game, regardless of the outcome.  I really only have one requirement for my hot dogs.  It is IMPERATIVE that I have some nacho cheese to dip it in.  Back in Round Rock, Monday home games for the Express were dollar hot dog and soda games.  Nothing cures a case of the "Mondays" like dollar hot dogs. I used to go and get several hot dogs and a cup of nacho cheese (which, at $1.50, cost more than a hot dog), and watch the games in a state of nacho-cheese bliss.  Those were good times. (A friend told me today that Monday games are just not the same without me... :-)  ).

But I digress.  Strike one against the Yankees (and their stadium) is that you cannot get nacho cheese.  Well, not in the conventional way, anyway.  They don't have regular "ball-park" (translation: orangey cheese-ish stuff) nachos.  They only have these specialty stands where you can buy traditional Mexican nachos with fancy cheese, sour cream, guacamole, the whole shebang.  So what did I do???

I think you guys already know the answer to this.  I paid $8 for those stupid nachos JUST so I could dip my hot dog in the cheese.  Not my proudest moment, but you do what you gotta do, I suppose.

Anyway, we had a great time at the game, and the Rangers were victorious. I always love a Yankees loss, and it was even sweeter knowing it was a team from the great state of Texas that did the damage.  I will say the Yankees fans around us were pretty cool and fun.  We got a normal amount of heckling, but it was all in good fun.

Here are a couple of pictures from the game.

It was really cold and windy, and these Yankees fans are a bunch of wimps!  Look at how empty this place is (this is like the 7th inning) - Minute Maid Park fills more seats than this on a Friday night!!

Speaking of Minute Maid, let's get on to the real highlight of that week...seeing my Astros for the first time this season!!  They came into town April 19-21 for a 3-game series with the Mets.  The first game of the series was on a Tuesday.  It had been cold, rainy, and miserable all day, and it was looking like it was not going to be a great day.  But a few hours before the game, I got a call telling me that I had gotten the job at One Medical!  And then the rain finally stopped.  So the day was turning around and I had my fingers crossed that the game wouldn't get rained out.  I was meeting Angie at one of the stops on the 7 train and we were going to ride in together and watch the game.  Angie tries to act like she is not a baseball fan (she says she only goes for the hot dogs, which is not necessarily a bad thing), but I think it's growing on her. We got to our seats and after spending like 10 minutes (and a whole lot of napkins) wiping all the rain off of them, we settled in to watch the game.  CitiField had already won my heart with...

Yes that's right, ball-park cheese!  I love that orangey cheese-ish stuff. :-) And it was only $1.50, which was a much more acceptable use of my resources.  

As you can see from the tarp on the field, the state of the game was still undetermined.  But they did end up playing.  As miserably cold and wet as the weather was (it was raining on and off the whole game), I couldn't have been happier.  It was like having a little bit of home right here in New York.  Eventually, we did go down to the concourse because of the rain, but we watched the rest of the game from the back of the lower sections.  IT WAS FREEZING.  

But we survived, and the Stros pulled off a win!  Which, if I'd known at the time how hard those would be to come by this season, I might have been more excited about.  Haha. Thanks for being a trooper, Angie, and for sticking out the whole game with me!! Here are a few more pictures from that game.

Nothing like looking into right field and seeing Hunter Pence

I also went to the Thursday game of the series, with my friend Ronnie from college, who also recently moved across the country to New York!  We had a different view...

...and much better weather...

...but alas, the Astros couldn't pull off another win for us.  

It's all good though.  The Astros won't be back in New York at all this season, but they will be in D.C. in September, so I am hoping to make it to those games.  Until then, I will have to keep watching my MLB TV and rooting for them from afar.  And going to Mets and Yankees games to get my "baseball fix." 

But I will never be a Yankees fan.  Never.