OT: First weekend of Major League Baseball
Opening Day was yesterday but now we are officially in baseball season with the first weekend series of the baseball fiscal year so to speak. Thought I would start an open thread for people as excited as I am to watch America's Pasttime. For me, it signifies that summer is near and it reminds me of how relaxing it can be to watch a game.
-What team do you root for?
-What player are you excited to see make a jump or continue to tear it up?
-Predictions for the season
-Tailgate plans for attending an Opening Day if your team started on the road
-Why you love the sport?
Today might be the only day all season that the Tigers are above .500, so I'm enjoying that while it lasts! Usually I wear my Al Kaline jersey to work on opening day and drink Oberon with brats or burgers for dinner while watching games, but I'm in the process of moving so haven't been able to do that this year.
I could never figure out how Al could invent the battery and be a great outfielder at the same time.
It was Kaline's rare ability to put a charge both into batteries and into a baseball, whether hitting (399 HRs and 3007 career hits) or throwing (he had a rocket arm from right field), that made him a first ballot Hall of Famer in both the baseball and the portable power devices halls of fame.
Tigers.
I'd like to see good years from Candelario and Stewart (kid who smoked the game winning HR yesterday).
72-90 or somewhere close to that.
Still waiting to hear from my buddy if his dad scored Opening Day tix (in Detroit April 4). Usually go to Detroiters to pre-drink and take the free bus over to Comerica.
It's slow and boring like golf. Another thing I really enjoy watching while drinking a cold beer on a hot day. I also remember 1984 (I was six years old) and have loved the Tigers ever since.
All the same answers, though I also follow the Padres religiously and am really excited about Fenando Tatis, Jr. If they hang around and acquire another starter at the deadline, SD could snag s wild card.
#FriarFridays
Didn't put it in the post, but I am excited to see Christin Stewart, obviously, and Jeimer Candelario. I hope Candelario is more aggressive this year and doesn't take as much. I like the thought process but I think he can be a .280 hitter with near 20 homer power if he takes less. He ends up getting in some 2 strike counts where he swings at worse pitches than he took. But I see a ton of potential with him.
I'll cop out a bit and say I'm most excited to follow the development of the Tigers' top prospects. It's been a while since they've had such a stacked farm system. It's not the best in baseball, but it's up there (MLB.com has them 10th but imo they've underrated Detroit's position prospects, namely Cameron and Paredes).
Avila has done a great job restocking the cupboards. Christin Stewart is already in the bigs, but we could see guys like Daz Cameron, Casey Mize, Kyle Funkhouser, Willi Castro and Jake Rogers in Detroit this year as well. They shouldn't stink for too much longer.
Tigers fan.
Excited to watch the younger guys and hoping Castellanos and Zimmerman have a huge first half so we can get a few pieces for them.
The quest to remain below 100 losses started great! But seriously I would imagine they will be between 70-75 wins.
Not attending opening day.
Played the game from age 4 through college and have loved it ever since. It is something my dad and I have always bonded over, along with other sports, but baseball was always number one. Most that don't enjoy baseball don't actually understand what is going on. The take that it is boring and too long is simply because people have no clue what is happening between pitches.
I enjoy baseball occasionally. It's just a slow sport. And it has been absolutely behind the times with any adoption of advancements. Season is much too long, pitchers can warm up in the bullpen for an hour, come into a game, and need to throw another 10 warm up pitches, manager visits, there's a ton baseball needs to clean up if it wants to stay relevant in this upcoming decade.
There is a reason that attendance shrinks every year. People have changed, for better or worse, since the sport was in the prime. The sport has not changed.
And the whole "people don't understand what is happening between pitches" is snobbery, sorry. It's not that complicated. Yeah, there are a lot of nuainces between pitches, but that stuff does not turn the needle for the average fan.
1. I completely agree, the baseball season should be shortened. Bring it in by a month, start middle April and end middle of September. No one needs to watch games in the blistering cold and the world series should not run into November, its nonsense.
2. Pitching in the bullpen and the game mound is completely different and I don't think the additional 30 seconds to throw 7 pitches is the cause of the length of the game. The difference between the bullpen and game mound could honestly be like raising or lowering the rim 3 inches in basketball from one possession to the next.
3. You can call it snobbery but the reality is that after every single pitch, the situation changes. The difference between a 1-2 count and a 2-1 count is astronomical. I am assuming since you said that you enjoy it from time to time, that you know this but a lot of people do not that don't enjoy the game. To each their own, and I certainly do not say that look down my nose at those people, I just don't think they ever learned.
For the record, I am relatively young (28) so I am in the minority of people my age that I love the game so much.
To my second point, there are just too many things overall the slow the pace down. It used to not matter because the older generations had patience, this one doesn't. But even when I was younger and loved the game, I would occasionally get bored.
There are a lot of ways to evolve the sport, and they need to. The NBA has completely embraced personalities. The majority of MLB players, even some of the stars could walk down the streets and have no clue who they are. The marketing on the sport is TERRIBLE.
I agree with the marketing of players, however, what is a team like the Tigers going to do to market Cabrera to their fan base? He has pretty broken English and would not be good to market in that way. Steph, Lebron, Harden, KD, and another long list of superstars don't have that problem. Antetokounmpo will never be at the same level as those guys because of that exact problem, and a guy like Kawhi with no personality is not marketable either. The MLB has tried really hard to push Trout, Bryant, Harper, Rizzo and Judge, but it's hard to market the same way as the NBA. The basketball players have the ball in their hands a LOT. Baseball, you are looking at four PA and maybe having the ball hit to them 4-5 times max. It just can't be done the same way.
The best thing that can happen to MLB is that the NFL goes under, which I could honestly see happening in my lifetime.
As far as evolving the sport I am curious if you are talking about electronic strike zones and technology integration, or rule changes? I personally want replay taken back out of baseball, and sports in general because it slows it down, and I still think they get it wrong because of the "indisputable video evidence" so we just rely on the initial call made by a 55 year old man in full speed.
Baseball is a good sporting event to go to if you want to spend a relaxing summer night outdoors with the family.
I might catch a Whitecaps game or two this summer. Detroit is a quite a long drive from GR when the Tigers aren't good.
A buddy and I always catch a day game in Toledo, one of the 10:30 am starts. I prefer it to Comerica: the park is smaller so you're closer to the field, the food it good (especially if you go to one of the Hensville bars after the game), and you can get Yuengling (maybe the only good thing about the state of ohio.)
Good topic. Hope ALWAYS springs eternal on Opening Day (although, with some teams, it's often gone by Memorial Day).
1. I root for the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers. My 2 favorite former home-towns. I do follow the Reds more. 2012 is still a painful memory. I still haven't recovered from the Buster Posey Grand Slam in Game 5 of the NLDS. It should have been a Reds/Tigers World Series!
2. Yasiel Puig and Jesse Winker for the Reds. Candelario for the Tigers.
3. Reds at 83-79. Maybe a wish, but that's my prediction. Tigers at 65-97. Yankees vs. Brewers in the World Series, with the Yankees winning their first in a decade.
4. Reds always get to start at home of course! I live in Denver though now (I find the Rockies tough to get "into"). I "tailgated" for the Reds yesterday by listening to the game on MLB.com from my desk.
5. It's the best of the sports for (a) history, (b) story-telling, (c) going out to the game and bonding with friends and family, and (d) listening on the radio. I rarely, if ever, watch baseball on TV. But I'll put it on the radio as background whenever possible. I also, as a numbers geek, like the numbers of the sport. Football is what I'm passionate about, but baseball is the sport that gets to the more idealistic part of my soul. Every April, my soul will overrule the brain and make the brain believe that this will be the year. I hope that some year I'll be right (I was too young to really know 1984).
I'm a Tigers fan. Have been my whole life. Some of my best memories as a kid are from Tiger Stadium. I'm looking forward to watching Guerrero Jr. and Acuna Jr. this year. Also, some of the youngsters for the Tigers.
My prediction is that the Tigers will be bad again and either the Red Sox, Yanks, Astros win the World Series.
I hardly ever make it to MLB games anymore, but I go to nearly every Vanderbilt home game (Go Dores! Anchor Down!). As a student, it's free and the student section is on the third baseline just down the line from third base. Headed over to the Hawk tonight for the first of a three game series against Tennessee.
Basically, "ditto". I grew up playing baseball until high school, I wanted to do nothing else. I'll always love the game.
I'm also rooting for the younger guys to hasten the rebuild. But short term I'd like to see Miggy return to form and finish his career with a flourish. I think he will if he can stay healthy, which at his age, body shape, weight, etc, is going to be a challenge. But I am rooting for him, nobody does it better than him when he is hitting well.
We're approaching the worst time of year for sports.
If I were betting on the reply you would give in this thread, this is precisely the reply that I would have bet on.
Been a Tiger fan for the past 65 years. I have seen them win 2 World Series although not enough those wins were only exceeded y the January 1, 1998 win by the UM National Championship Team.
What is wrong with the Stanley Cup playoffs?
Red Sox
Mookie Betts
I hope a repeat. Bryce Harper gets booed in a weeks time by Philly fans because, well, Philly fans.
It is slow, but I think people need to slow down.
They booed Harper yesterday
Just seen that he was and was going to edit. Wow I was way off.
Thank you.
Big Rockies fan. Hope they can win the West this year and get deeper into playoffs. Love watching the best left side of an infield with Arenado and Story
Red Sox
Mooooookie
playoffs, bullpen depth catches up to us
Only done it once for a World Series game.
I grew up going to Fenway, had 10 game ticket packs every year. We’d drive down for the weekend from Maine (yea probably didn’t need to say that), spend the weekend in a hotel. My dad and I would go to a game, sister and mom would go shopping.
Fun times, bringing back memories, nice post OP