Baseball Journal 4-1-13

[As threatened, a series of reports from last week follow.]

“Opening Day is like a birthday, but every year you get younger.” I don’t know who originally said that, but I heard it from George Will. In spite of the generally cold weather, there’s always such a sense of optimism in the air. Everybody has the same record. Will the big off-season moves work out? Who will the surprise teams be? At this point in the season anything can happen and no one knows what will.

Okay, enough crap. I only got to watch one game yesterday, Cubs vs. Pirates on WGN. It was entertaining, but I was fairly annoyed that the El Paso Dodgers radio affiliate, KROD, decided to not air their opening day game. Instead they aired their two local sports talk shows. Let’s break this down. El Paso, a city without a top-level professional sports team, an independent league baseball team which receives no coverage, soon to have a Triple-A baseball team who will get the same treatment, a minor league hockey team which isn’t covered either, debatably has a Division I football program, and has a college basketball team that hasn’t been relevant for years, somehow merits two back-to-back local sports talk shows. The best I can say is that it’s better than their national ESPN sports talk programming, which is to say, it’s better than dead air.

(Oh, let’s get into this too. Good old ESPN waterboy Colin Cowherd was there yesterday defending Tony Romo’s big new contract. He justified it by comparing Romo’s numbers to Tim Tebow’s. Mistake, Colin. Tim has as many playoff wins as Romo.)

So, yeah. Let’s rehash that poor guy breaking his leg in the NCAA tournament over and over, rather than broadcasting a Dodger-Giant rivalry game between Kershaw and Cain that was scoreless for seven innings, until Kershaw hit his first major league home run, a bomb to centerfield. No drama there. Wise programming move KROD.

Meanwhile, it was a cold, blustery day on the frozen tundra of PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Well, sort of. There had been snow flurries during batting practice, but it was bright and sunny during the game. A sunny 35 degrees, but a full house anyway.

The only wind came from the swinging bats over the course of 25 total strikeouts. AJ Burnett of the Pirates and Jeff Samardzija of the Cubs both pitched well, in spite of extenuating circumstances. Jeff looks like he’d be more at home wearing a large hat with a big feather, wielding a foil, and speaking French, than standing on a pitching mound. AJ was the victim of an April Fools’ prank, when his resin bag exploded upon usage in the 5th inning. Nobody on the field was laughing, but I doubt it was unintentional.

(Ahem, and after what I just said about national sports talk radio, I did call in to Fox Sports radio that night and told host Ben Maller about the prank over the air. I thought it was the kind of story he and audience would want to know about. You know, real sports news.)

Anthony Rizzo’s two-run homer in the 1st would ultimately be the winner in the Cubs 3 – 1 triumph. First pitch of the season he sees and sends it out of the stadium, nearly into the river. Rizz is going to need a nickname here soon. The Cubs did trot out Marmol in the 9th in an attempt to lose the game. My father, watching with me, couldn't even watch. Suddenly, Cubs manager, Dale Sveum, broke with protocol, and brought in a couple of competent relievers. Getting the save and making his major league debut was my new favorite player, Kyuji Fujikawa. You need to hear the alliteration to understand my affection. It’s one of the greatest names to say ever.

Len and his new partner, DJ, did fine workman-like job in announcing the game. There was one disquieting moment as they mentioned, but did not elaborate on, the prospect of the National League adopting the DH. Great, now every game will go over three hours. I kept a scorecard, which in spite of my diligent efforts, turned out to be wrong and incomplete, as usual. I think Wellington Castillo getting caught in a five-person rundown was what did me in.

In other Opening Day news, the Yankees are old and made the Red Sox actually look good. Stephen Strasburg looked good, but as I predicted, it was Bryce Harper, putting the team on his back and winning the game with his two home runs. I saw the highlights of that. Oh my God, Harper has bulked up over the winter. He may be terrifying pitchers this year.