Baseball is back! This pleases me, A LOT. Baseball being back on means we are nearly to summer and I love summer. School is out, it’s daylight longer, traffic is lighter, there is swimming... What’s not to like?
As I often tell the world, I have three teams that make/ruin my weekends: the Texas Longhorns, the Dallas Mavericks and the Texas Rangers. The Horns are in the middle of baseball season, nearly two months away from the end of the season with basically nothing else going on. The Mavericks are, well, awful. They let everyone go last off-season and now, it seems, are all set to spend all the money on... somebody... when their season ends. I tell you this because I have now turned (the majority of) my attention to Rangers.
Texas opened the entire season off on national TV in Houston on April 1 and lost, 8-2, but followed that up with near-perfect game from Yu Darvish on Tuesday in a 7-0 win. Darvish was this close to a perfect game, giving up a 2-out single up the middle in the bottom of the ninth. I think even most of the hometown Astros fans were a little disappointed. I know the legions of Rangers fans in the crowd were bummed, but it happens, doesn’t it? It will happen again, too.
This is a new look Rangers team: gone are Josh Hamilton (Angels), Mike Napoli (Red Sox) and Michael Young (traded to Phillies last year) and in are AJ Pierzynski and Lance Berkman, tormentor of Rangers fans in the 2011 World Series.
Expected back this year as well are all the pitchers lost to injury in 2012: Neftali Feliz, Colby Lewis and Martin Perez all missed most of/all of 2012 with injuries and should be back at some point this year, making a shaky staff behind Darvish more consistent.
And there are so many kids waiting for the shot. Guys like Jurickson Profar and Mike Ott will be in Round Rock for the beginning of the year, at least, before getting the call up...
But enough about the details. Baseball is back and it’s on every night of the week. I love the Rangers, but I will watch them all play. Literally. I can watch three baseball games and Law & Order, Special Victims Unit at the same time and more or less keep up with everything going on. Is it just me?
This is going to be a fun year. The Astros are in the American League, firmly dividing my circle of friends in half, the Yankees won’t run away with the East (meaning a competitive race), and I will take great delight in watching the L.A. Angels of Anaheim near Los Angeles on the West Coast of America falling apart again with their giant payroll and egos... Where are they getting all this money, anyway? A topic for another time, I suppose.
I hope you all enjoy the baseball season as much as I do.
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