Bring Beautiful Baseball

It’s roughly 20 days until pitchers and catchers report according to MLB.com. Here are 20 reasons to tune into baseball in 2009:

20) The MLB Network debut. If you have access to the channel, I can’t see any real drawbacks to being able to see games from around the league everyday.

19) The Rays’ David Price’s first full season as a starting pitcher. This guy is going to set the league on fire down in Tampa.

18) Ozzie Guillen is always a charismatic character to cry and complain in Chitown. I am sure we’ll be hearing from him in no time once again, especially now that President Obama is the number one White Sox fan.

17) Dontrelle Willis is off the DL and healthy again in Detroit. Look for him to bounce back and get his high leg kick in gear for the underachieving Tigers.

16) How will Chipper Jones hit when he visits New York? He practically owned Shea Stadium and the new CitiField is supposed to be even more hitter-friendly. Speaking of the tomahawks, they have a promising prospect with potential in pitcher, Tommy Hansen. Hansen might be in their rotation as soon as this Spring.

15) Can the Chicago Cubs break their post-season curse? Probably not this year.

14) How soon before the Mets fans start referring to their new relief pitcher J.J. as simply “Putz” (in the literal sense)?

13) Manny being Manny again---somewhere.

12) Who will be the first manager canned? Better yet, who will have more wins, the Pirates, Royals or Nationals?

11) How will Michael Young like the transition from SS to 3B? Maybe he will put up Arod numbers. Let’s just hope he can hit in the clutch and won’t start dating Madonna.

10) Were the 2008 Rays just a fluke? They dropped the Devil and I think they are for real.

9) John Smoltz’s debut for the Red Sox against the Yankees will be fun.

8) How many pitchers will win 20 games? Roy Halladay will and he will still fly under the radar in Toronto.

7) The use of instant replay will probably be employed often.

6) Krod’s New York debut

5) New stadiums in New York. Which sluggers will hit the first homeruns in the new parks?

4) Can the Phillies repeat as World Champions?

3) You have to keep an eye on the Mets late in the season. Will they avoid another collapse or can they go for a third straight falling out?

2) C.C., A.J. and Tex in pinstripes. Enough said.

1) Baseball is America’s pastime and always will be.

3 more reasons:

3) Pre-season games
2) Regular season games
1) Post-season games

Parting points: Today’s celebrity birthdays of note:
Tiffani-Amber Theissen- The Buffalo bad girl Valerie Malone of 90210 fame and caring, Kelly Kapowski of Saved By the Bell
Tony Lucca- former Mickey Mouse Club member and singer
William Cunningam of the Box Tops (I love the song “The Letter”)
Humphrey Bogart- it may or may not be his actual birthday. Check out the controversy here: www.snopes.com/movies/actors/bogartbirthday.asp

In honor of Tiffani, here is my favorite Valerie Malone quote: “These people are such avocado heads.”