I'm excited for my Cardinals as always! However, I don't see them overtaking the Cubs in the division this year. As for the Cards - I like their lineup better than last years. More settled in the outfield, picked up some younger bats int he off season ... but it all comes down (as always) to the health and constancy of their starting rotation. Not sure about the bullpen this year either. Overall, they don't have any glaring weak spots... but not many known-quantity super stars either...

Play ball and GO CARDS!

My Tigers are in for a long season. Enjoy J.D., I enjoyed watching him play.

The A's have a lot of very good people coming through the system and finally are making progress towards a new stadium.

And of course lost two good young pitchers, one is their top prospect, to TJS before they got out of spring training.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

This is a lock. The fight'n Phillies will pad their MLB leading and all pro sports leading loss record this season !

I have no idea where they end up this year. They have some young guys playing so hoping they will be a fun team to watch.

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

It seems obvious, too obvious, that the AL will have the same 4 playoff teams as last year.

If you told me one of the 4 doesn't make it back, I would guess the Red Sox.

The Reds let one of their best players go to free agency (Zac Cozart), but they shouldn't be any worse than last year. Which isn't saying much.

And they postponed today's Opening Day, which is basically a holiday here in Cincinnati, late yesterday afternoon because it was forecast to rain all day. So everyone who scheduled today off had to switch to tomorrow, although a lot of people took both days off.

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I miss YaHey

Its Time for Dodger Baseball

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All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

I'm pretty sure that the Rays are going to take it all this year.

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_______________________________________________________
Yes

Padres will be the Padres. Petco Park, however, will remain the best fan experience in MLB. Anyone who says otherwise hasn't been to Petco Park and/or is a shill.

Brewers are in town today. While driving this morning, I saw a guy on the side of the road wearing a Bewers jersey. I was tempted to yell "Brewers suck!" but I was waiting for his parallel parking spot.

Anyone see what happened at Dodger stadium the other night? The sewer backed up and spilled onto the field right by third base. The game (the last spring training game) was called in the... fifth, I think. LOL Los Angeles. Just LOL. So typical.

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War is god

Leaving work early today.

You all can stop with the silly predictions.

The Mariners will end the longest playoff drought in pro sports by going to and wining the world series.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

 

Absolutely jazzed to watch my O's play. I really am expecting at least 64 wins this year.

Mariners have to be one of the worst organizations in Baseball. Still, going to a game with your kids when its warm is still a great time. Safeco is a great stadium.

I love Safeco, and its pairing with CenturyLink is brilliant.

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War is god

Padres' first pitch in about a minute!

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War is god

Still hockey season!

But dammit! Giants - MadBum surgery. Royals - Savy - surgery.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

What team is closest to you now? Reds?

Crazy start to the season as Eduardo Nunez gets an inside-the-park HR in the 1st inning.

Stanton goes deep in his first AB with the Yanks.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

Cubs' leadoff guy hit a HR on the first pitch.

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War is god

3 HR's in total for my Cubbies today, and a win to start the season off.

Putting the W flag up when I get home tonight and hope to watch a bit of the game on MLB.tv.

Really the only professional sport I keep up with anymore and man did I miss it!

Nats fan here. As it goes with my Steelers, ready for another year of being regular season heroes and postseason zeroes.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

Cubs is on pace for a 162-0 season.

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War is god

Ohtani (the batter) got a hit in his first AB. We'll see how Ohtani (the pitcher) does in a few days.

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I miss YaHey

Having grown up watching Brooks, Palmer, Ripken etc. I am thinking along the same lines. They should be good enough to get a good 70+ wins guaranteed.

Only the second time in MLB history that its happened. I remember when Dwight Evans (one of my all-time faves) did it off Jack Morris in '86.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

A's win in 11, strike out Trout in the top of the 11th with two men on. The rest of the season has been cancelled. A's win the division!

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

The Jays can’t hit. And they have Vlady Guerrero Jr in AA. I’d rather he come up and play.

Why force him to stay in the minors. Bring him up and let’s see what he can do. Everyone says he’s ready. But nobody goes from A ball to the majors. I guess because that’s how it’s always been.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Given his walk off dinger in MTL, the other night, I'd imagine he'll be in the big league lineup at some point this year. Looks like a fun player to watch as his dad was.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

We didn't do so good, ouch...lol

I’ll be watching where he’s playing in the minors. If he’s staying at 3B and they are out of it then I would expect Donaldson to be traded and maybe they call him up.

But if they are hanging around the wildcard spot and he’s still at 3B then I can’t see him coming up. Maybe if he started playing 2B or OF then they might have plans to bring him up.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Billabong wrote:

Its Time for Dodger Baseball

And the Dodgers are in last place, where they belong! Kershaw is delt his first loss of the year!
Go Giants!

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~Brad

The Tigers had to cancel their opening day yesterday due to rain, and instead are having it today in crisp early spring temps. Could be a harbinger of a season to come, to be honest, because they hadn't sold out for Opening Day, something that hasn't happened in awhile.

"And they'll walk out to the bleachers, and sit in shirt-sleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game, and it'll be as if they'd dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick, they'll have to brush them away from their faces. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game -- it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again." -Terrance Mann

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Best scene/quote in the movie. That and “Hey rookie! You were good “. Gets dusty in the room.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

Wait till next year

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All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

Growing up, we were like the kids in that move 'The Sandlot.' We played all day, every day -- sometimes at the park on a real diamond, sometimes down at the corner elementary school gravel-filled playground, sometimes with rocks and broomsticks in the alley that ran behind our houses (we called that 'Rocky Mountain Baseball').

Sometimes we'd make a batter's-zone sized-box on a brick wall of the school and played 'Strikeout', using one of those hardware store-bought white rubber balls (stamped "Major League") that were the size and weight of a hardball. Usually, you played that if there were only two or four of you and you couldn't get anyone else to play. One pitcher and fielder against two batters. Three outs and you switched. Home runs had to clear the school fence. Triples had to land a certain distance, and so forth. We played wherever we could, whenever we could.

We also played a game out on the sidewalk in front of our houses called "Running Bases." You walked off a certain distance of sidewalk squares and had two fielders, one on each opposite designated sidewalk square. Then you put a runner on one of the squares. The goal for the runner was to "steal" the other base (the opposite sidewalk square). There were runs awarded, and if you were thrown out you became the fielder while the one who tagged you out became the runner. We didn't realize it, but we were developing varsity-level base running, throwing and fielding skills just by playing on a city neighborhood's sidewalk.

We got our gloves either from Western Auto (when it existed) or the corner hardware store (they had a nice selection of Rawling's and Spalding gloves) or Sears. Same for bats, which were wooden, not aluminum (at least, not until junior high), and we scored a new Louisville Slugger, stamped with a favorite Detroit Tiger, on Free Bat Day (can you imagine passing out full-sized, MLB-approved baseball bats today? ;-).

Back then, the "batter's glove" really wasn't in widespread use (I didn't use one until high school), and we all tried to imitate the batter's stance of our favorite players (Willie Horton's was a bear, believe me ;-). Doing Joe Morgan's insane elbow-drop thing was always worth extra style points. Hahahahaha!

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

We did the same with the rundowns, calling it “pickle “. Usually there were enough kids around to get some type of game going, whether in someone’s yard or a nearby field. We’d also do home run derby with a whiffle ball/bat where you’d hit towards the back of the house and depending on which floor you hit determined double, triple, homer etc. I don’t think kids do stuff like that anymore.

Yaz’s stance/swing was a bitch to copy. I got yelled at by my little league coach for doing it in a game.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

I never tried his, mainly because I never had the style and panache needed to pull it off. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Went on a baseball trip with my son last year following the Royals up and down the west coast. Truly interested to hear why you say Petco is the best fan expirience in MLB? Isn't winning the best fan experience?

King Felix with the win.

Nelson “ Boomstick” Cruz hits one out.

Mariners in first place.

Wire to wire.

Nice to see Felix win a close one and hand a loss to Kluber.

Probably a wash between the Reds and the Braves. We have the Oakland As triple A team here and their stadium is only 1/2 mile from my house.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Bunch of crooks

https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2018/03/29/jays-get-a-cut-from-online-scalpers.html

Mets and Yanks both won yesterday, so that's a good season opener for me!

Did anyone see the season over and under for the Yankees....94.5 wins! Whew, that's a big number, too high for my money.

Mets look like a safer bet to me at 81.5.

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---------------------------
''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

Ha! I thought this was going to be about trout season

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot