Opening Morning
Okay – I admit up front that I’m just not a big sports fan. When someone mentions March Madness, I assume they are referring to the inability to cope with the cold and snow any longer, hoping for the warm weather to arrive. I live in Cleveland, but I don’t give a rat’s ass about Lebron James. As a side note, here’s something that irritates me. When referring to Lebron, I hear people calling him LBJ (of course, I’m thinking the president). I don’t know why it irritates me, but Lebron is the guy’s first name - it’s not two separate names. His middle name (I looked this up) is Raymone, so, if anything, they should be calling him LRJ. Also, I absolutely hate the Cleveland Browns. When I was younger and growing up in the small town of Wapakoneta, I actually watched football, and I was a Cincinnati Bengals fan, while my brother loved the Browns. So, I just grew up hating the team. Now, I don’t watch or care about football, but that disliking of the Browns has lingered for whatever reason.
I’ve listened to Sports radio, and one thing I don’t understand is that they usually talk about soccer as not being a real sport and then go off talking about golf for the next fifteen minutes. What’s that about?
I’ve never gotten into hockey, either, but my wife and I were thinking about going to a game since Cleveland does have minor league hockey in town (Lake Erie Monsters), but we haven’t done that yet. Whereas I at least understand the basics of football and basketball, aside from putting the puck in the goal, I don’t know anything about hockey, so I’m not sure how that will work.
What is this long-winded introduction getting at? Aside from my not being a “sports” guy, I am a huge baseball fan. Always have been. Always will be. If you’ve seen the film Fever Pitch, yeah, maybe not quite to that extreme, but I am that guy.
I grew up a Cincinnati Reds fan, and, although I still love the Reds, my allegience to the Cleveland Indians was quick from my the time I moved here in the sixth grade. Can’t wait for opening day on March 31, although current forecast calls for rain…sigh.
Anyway, baseball is often sited for its traditions, and something is happening this year that I don’t fully understand, and, for whatever reason, it doesn’t sit well with me. As I’m writing this, the Boston Red Sox and Oakland A’s are playing Game 2 of a quick two-game series in Japan to kick off the major league baseball season. These games are almost a week before the rest of the league starts to play. Supposedly, they come back from these games (which actually count in the standings) and then continue to play their exhibition games. Just seems wrong. I have no problem with the teams playing in Japan, but it seems like they should be exhibition games – not the real thing. I’m still excited about the Indians opener next Monday, but this start in Japan has pretty much taken the excitement out of the actual first game of the season. Oooooh – they’re starting at 6am on a Tuesday morning. Who cares? For Oakland fans – it’s 3am when the game is starting – that sucks.
Speaking of tradition, there was also this rule that no team could start the season before the Cincinnati Reds because they were the first organization in MLB. With tv and all this corporate shit, that went away quite a few years ago. Out of respect for the Reds (maybe because it was my childhood team), I think that’s a tradition that needs to be upheld. Who cares if it would cut into an ESPN Sunday Night opener or a stupid 2-game series in Japan. In the past, if the Reds started their game at 12:05, then the other games wouldn’t start until 12:10. If they are worried about the steroids taking all the publicity, then how about getting back some of those little traditions that makes the game so great?
I guess it’s just a great metaphor for the times that we live in. You can’t be afraid to offend anyone (you get all these “warnings” from the umpires now when players used to take care of their business on the field). You have to keep all the corporations happy and sell as much ad time as possible at the expense of tradition. Still, times may change, but it’s a great game. I haven’t figured out what it is about baseball that has stuck with me all these years when all other sports have faded away. Something I might look into one day.
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