The Maiden Blog

Coincidentally - or not coincidentally, however you may see it - I begin my blog on Opening Day of the 2007 MLB season. The older I get, the more I find myself year after year anxiously anticipating the start of a new baseball season. The Mets and Cardinals started things off last night, but today is officially Opening Day; and for the next seven months, there is baseball on TV nearly every single day (if you ask my wife, it is on every single day). While you will not hear me argue that there is too much baseball on, I will have to concede that 162 games are far too many. Could we not go back to the 144-game schedule and still muster up the same excitement and pageantry? I think shortening the season would only add to the excitement, not take away from it.Still, you will probably never see the schedule shortened - other than in a strike season of course - so my argument is inherently futile and pointless. But it makes for good bloggin'...

As with each baseball season, my eyes this year are on the Atlanta Braves. Admittedly, I am excited and more than a little optimistic about their chances. Simply put, this 2007 group of Braves is a very likable team. It hearkens back to the days of yore (Yore? yes, yore) when guys like Mark Lemke, Sid Bream, Terry Pendleton and Ron Gant comprised a team that you could not help but support and admire. But likeability and camaraderie do not win Division titles, League Pennants or World Series rings - talent does. Please do not hear me wrong and think I'm stepping out on a ledge and predicting a World Series Title for this team, but I do like the lineup and I am impressed with the off-season improvements made in a bullpen that last year handed the division to the Mets. Plus, as a Georgia boy myself, I have to like a team that - on any given night - could put as many as five born and raised Georgians on the field. Not bad...

Sports Illustrated has picked a Dodger/Angel World Series, some "experts" like the Giants' chances out west, the Yankees always get their notoriety, the Cardinals are still very good and the Mets are a popular pick in the NL East. I will stick with my Braves in the NL East (the Mets' starting pitching is just not strong enough), the Phillies as the Wild Card, the Giants in the West and the Cardinals in the Central. Watch out for the Dodgers and the Brewers. Yes, the Brewers.
Now I am really going to go out on a limb and take the Yankees and Red Sox in the AL East, with the Angels and the Tigers winning their respective divisions. As we have learned from years past, you cannot count out Oakland - no matter what month it is - and Minnesota is still quite strong. Why not have a Cardinals/Yankees World Series? Sounds good to me...

Before I close, I want it known that I am one of only about 250,000 other people who correctly picked this year's Final Four. Of course, I also had Georgia Tech going to the Sweet 16. Quite a paradox, huh? That's why it's called March Madness...

More to come later, including:
The Giants' two Barrys: Wishing One's Season Would End Quickly
March Madness Wrap Up
Why I Can't Watch the NBA Regular Season

It's coming soon! I'm sure you're holding your breath...