Its Here!!! Well, Almost.

Baseball season is finally here, at least sort of. Its Spring Training season and players are all reporting to Florida or Arizona this week to begin prepping for the real thing in April. So I thought I would take a moment to ramble on about a few things to start off the pre-season.

Nate McLouth re-signs with the Bucs

I was a big fan on Nate’s when he was with the Indianapolis Indians and have enjoyed following his progress in the Majors. Nate batted .276 with 26 HRs and 46 doubles, which was tied for first in the NL last year. I am both happy and sad that he stayed in Pittsburgh. I am happy to see him get a nice contract and will hopefully have a nice long stay in the Majors. I am sad that he is on a team that has not had a winning season since Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla were playing for the Pirates. Congrats, Nate, and I am looking forward to another great year out of you.

Adam Dunn signs a two-year contract with the Nationals

I have never really figured out why so many sports writers are so negative against Adam Dunn. Yes, I know that he strikes out quite a bit. Adam had 164 strikeouts lat year, but that was only third best on his team! However, he has hit 40 HRs each of the past four years and ranked ninth in the NL with an OBP of .386. So while he does strike out a lot, he still gets on base more than most and can clobber the ball as well. At 29 years old, he still has a several good years left in him and should be a boost to the Nationals. Although sadly like the Pirates, they will probably suck as well this year.

David Eckstein signs with the Padres

The poster child for short, white, average skill baseball players signed a one-year contract with the Padres to help give the team someone with playoff experience and a couple of World Series rings. Because that is the only reason I can see a team signing the Eck. And do not go mentioning he has a boatload of intangibles, GRIT factor or how he isn’t afraid to get dirty. If the man was 6’2” he probably would be in the minors at this point. But since he is short, white and has a couple of rings, GMs seem to have a hard on for the man.

Remember this comment from last year

If the Dodgers do make the trade and they somehow win the World Series, I will kill something.

Allow me to update it for this year:

If the Whale’s Vagina Padres win the World Series with Eckstein on the team, I WILL kill something.

Steroids

I am torn on the steroids topic at this point. I am tired of the whole discussion on the Steroids Era and whether records and statistics should be thrown out or whether the players from that era should not be voted into the Hall of Fame or whether Jose Canseco needs an apology from MLB. Yet I am not sure how I feel about Alex Rodriguez’s most recent explanation of why, how and what he took from 2001-2003. If you are going to come out and tell the truth, then tell the whole truth. His interview was full of contradictions from his first interview, suddenly there was a “cousin” involved, the stuff he took was supposedly available over-the-counter in the Dominican Republic, the two drugs he tested positive for, primobolan and testosterone, could not have come from one drug, he sad attempt at shedding a tear while looking at his teammates, the list goes on and on. I want to know more, but at the same time, I don’t care anymore.

This happened several years ago and he has not tested positive since. He won two additional MVP since the first one he won in 2003, so he is still a very good player without the PEDs. People have pointed out that his home run totals during the three years he said he took PEDs are higher compared to the years after he stopped. However, you cannot necessarily point to steroids as the main factor in the increase. A-Rod signed with Texas in 2001 and Arlington Stadium is a hitters ballpark. After the 2003 season, A-Rod was traded to the Yankees. Yankee Stadium is not suited for A-Rod to hit as many home runs. So this would have also attributed to the decrease in home runs after 2003.

Bud Selig

You’re still a fucktard!

Wrigley Field

I have had the pleasure the past couple of years to bask in sun in the bleachers of Wrigley Field. There is nothing like sitting in the bleachers with a group of great friends with a beer in one hand and a brat in the other, baking in the sun and watching a baseball game in one of the greatest stadiums around. As a Cardinals fan, I’m definitely not a Cubs fan, even though I would like to see them actually win a Series so they can go another hundred years without one. But Wrigley is one of those places where it doesn’t matter what team you are rooting for, you are there to take in the whole experience of “the friendly confines”. I am looking forward to making another trip or two this year.

Like every other fan of our national pastime, I am so looking forward to the two words we long to hear every year:

“PLAY BALL!”

Hey, Murray, Puck You!

Murray Chass is getting an early start for a run at the 2009 FotY. Murray is appalled that they played a sport other than baseball at the "Friendly Confines" of Wrigley Field. No way! How could they do something like that to a sporting venue?

(NOTE: this segment is at the end of the full article. While I have issues with most of the entire article, this part was the most offensive to me.)

NHL Ices Cubs for 100 More Years

Nice, a shitty title for a shitty article.

The National Hockey League has desecrated one of America’s great cathedrals. It installed an ice rink at Wrigley Field and played a hockey game there last week. Just the thought of it is painful.

Umm, Murray, you do realize that they have played other sports at Wrigley Field, right? I know you are a Red Sox fanatic and a baseball writer and might not be versed on topics outside of those two areas. Really, Murray, they played professional football AND soccer there. And is it so much of a shock to have a facility host an event other than for its primary function?

Can you believe it? A hockey game in the friendly confines? Ice within the ivy-covered walls? Violating the home of the lovable losers?

Well, it is not like it was 70 degrees outside and you were trying to play hockey? (Although, it would have been interesting if Chicago had had a winter "heat" wave and been in the 50's or 60's.) I think it was a smart move to be able to host something in the off-season. The game was the most watched NHL game in 34 years! And I read next year's game will be at the new Yankee Stadium. So are you going to bitch about that as well or is that OK since it is a brand new stadium?

Personally, I would have loved to have gone to that game. I like hockey (Go Blues!) and I think the atmosphere would have made for one hell of a game. The fact it WAS one hell of a game between two of the "Original Six" teams on the ice would have been the icing on the frozen cake.

They laid the rink right where Ernie Banks always wanted to play two, where in 1930 Hack Wilson produced 116 (according to Elias Sports Bureau) of the 191 runs he drove in, where Ryne Sandberg played virtually his entire Hall of Fame career, where Leo Durocher blew a division championship in 1969, the first year of division play, and in the process tossed me out of his clubhouse.

Let's not also forget:

• Where the Chicago Bears played for 50 years and won eight of its nine championships.
• Where George Halas coached and Bears' greats such as Dick Butkus, Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo played most or all of their careers.
• And where the Chicago Sting played the other kind of football in the 80's - that 's soccer for you illiterates.

Based on available information, the N.H.L, didn’t even pay for the use of the field and thereby lighten the financial load of Wrigley’s bankrupt owners.

Generally, a league does not pay for the use of a venue. I'm not sure if the NHL "paid" for the use of the field, but I imagine Wrigley Field got to keep most or all of the concession revenue and that is likely to be pretty good sum of money for a sold-out event. I'm betting that either the Blackhawks had to give a portion of the ticket sales as a use fee or Wrigley Field got to keep a larger portion of the concession revenue. I don't think Wrigley hosted the event for free. The owners may be bankrupt, but they are not fucking idiots. But without seeing more details, that is just speculation on my part.

If the Cubs think they have been cursed in their inability to win the World Series for 100 years, wait ‘till they see what happens the next hundred years.

Murray, I don't think that hosting a non-baseball event is going to "curse" the Cubs anymore than they are already "cursed". Their inability to win a World Series is do to the fact they have not played well enough in the playoffs to go to the World Series. For all we know, the Cubs might turn out winning the most World Series in the 21st century...or they may have a 192 year drought streak by then. Either one is just as likely at this point.

Murray, you are such a fucktard on this one. I imagine you will have a brain aneurysm when they try and have this event at Fenway Park in the future.