Today is Opening Day

Yes, I know the first game was last night, and the Red Sox came from behind to beat the Yankees, but today is the REAL Opening Day, when the Cardinals go visit the Cincinnati Reds, who have hosted the traditional opener for as long as i can remember.

Today is the day when the Cubs and the White Sox start 0-0 and have a chance to win the pennant, and I hope it lasts longer than June.

Gotta have the Big Hurt, even if he was with Toronto at the time.

So, thanks to the Internet Archive, I want to give you a gift: here is the recording of Vin Scully, the greatest play-by-play man of any sport, the voice of the Dodgers for 62 years (yes, you read that right) calling Sandy Koufax's perfect game on September 9, 1965.  It is a masterpiece, as was Koufax's pitching.  Enjoy!

Today should be a NATIONAL holiday

Why? Because it's OPENING DAY!!!!!! The Sox, unfortunately, got snowed out of their home opener against KC, and the Cubs open up tonight in Houston against the Astros. The rain and snow seems to be moving out of St. Louis, as seen above, in time for their 3:15 start with Pittsburgh. If you can, GO WATCH BASEBALL.

Very sad news from Atlanta...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting the death of the Voice of the Atlanta Braves, Skip Caray, at the age of 68.  He had battled numerous illnesses in recent years, and only worked Braves home games this year.

The son of beloved Cardinals, White Sox and Cubs announcer Harry Caray, Skip developed a style all his own, quite unlike his bombastic father.  His sharp, dry wit livened up the Braves games in the 70s and 80s, when they were mostly mediocre or outright awful, long before the 14-year run of division championships that began in 1991.

Now, hopefully, he will get his just due and be given the Ford Frick Award and placed in the Hall Fame.  He will be missed by all who love baseball.

FGF and The Crosstown Classic

H/T to Chicagoist, who reminds us that before Harry Caray sang Take Me Out to the Ball Game at Wrigley Field, he started this at old White Sox Park when he broadcast the Sox during the 1970s.

Enjoy.

Greg Maddux

Greg Trott/Getty Images

ESPN The Magazine has a wonderful story about the Majors' all-time Active leader in victories, whom I have followed since he first came up with the Cubs. A certain Hall of Famer, I am eagerly awaiting the game when he passes Roger Clemens on the all-time victories list.

I am having a blast playing with Flock; it has a blog editor in the browser, which is how I am posting this, it let me do a drag-and-drop with the above picture. Cool, eh?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Yes, I know..

We're going to the Final Four, but today is the REAL Opening Day for Major League Baseball, and that's what's on my mind at the moment.

Despite the fact that Kerry Wood gave up three runs in the top of the 9th to their chief rivals for the NL Central, the Milwaukee Brewers (sorry, Jody, the Cardinals are going to suck this year), newly arrived outfielder Kosuke Fukudome hit a game-tying three-run homer in the bottom half to send the game to extra innings. However, the Cubs bullpen couldn't handle the newly-found prosperity, losing to the Brew Crew, 4-3.

The Southsiders were in Cleveland, and lost, 10-8, despite TWO Jim Thome homers. It's going to be a LOONNNGGG season at the Cell, I fear, because the pitching just isn't there.

As for you Cardinal fans, The Birds took a 5-1 lead, complete with an Albert Pujols homer, before the rain washed it way; Opening Day is now opening night on Tuesday. It's just as well, with the exception of Wainwright, Pujols and Rick Ankiel, they're old and they're going to stink on ice; 4th place would be over-achieving for this bunch. Think I'm kidding? How have their AAA Redbirds done recently? Uh-huh, it's not pretty.

That's OK, I've got the Braves on HD, thanks to CSS, so I'm going to go watch some more baseball.

Later, I will speak my piece about how, if she wanted to, Hillary could still campaign and actually HELP the Democratic Party, instead of trying to ensure the defeat of its' strongest candidate, Barack Obama. Back to Tommy G and his return to Turner Field!

Yes, Kerry, you're right, I should have posted sooner.

The Civil Rights Game will take place tomorrow afternoon at AutoZone Park at 4 PM, featuring the Chicago White Sox and the New York Mets. It will be shown on ESPN, and I believe tickets may still be available.

The Sox have looked shaky in the Spring, but that often portends a strong season. However, in the AL Central, where Cleveland and Detroit have a hammerlock, it could be problematic for the South Siders.

As for the Mets, I happened to be in the Philly area when the Mets blew the NL East, and they are hoping that the acquisition of Johan Santana will bring them back from the depths of despair.

Another little piece of my youth leaves today...

No, I'm not a Cincinnati Reds fan by any stretch, but I AM a baseball fan since birth. In the summertime, when either living in the Midwest or the Mid-South, you always knew you could pick up 700 WLW at night, and hear Joe Nuxhall broadcasting the Reds, his calm, comforting voice offsetting the manic calls of Marty Brenneman. The Ol' Lefthander was an icon, not just in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, but throughout the Midwest and wherever WLW blasted through the Eastern US.

In Cincinnati itself, he was the most popular sports figure, bigger than Bench, Rose, Morgan, Bob Huggins, Ken Anderson, or any of the others who populated the town. He first gained legend as being the youngest player ever to play in the modern-era Major League Baseball, appearing in 1944 for the Reds at the tender age of 15. After that appearance, he went back to school in Fairfield, OH, but wound up back with the Reds in 1952, staying with them for all but a year through the end of his baseball career in 1966, which I am old enough to remember.

Then, he began the broadcasting career that cemented his hold over the area, working first with Waite Hoyt and then Marty Brennaman. He retired in 2004, but continued to work a few home games with Marty through this past year.

The Ol' Lefthander rounded third and went home for good last night, the victim of cancer. He was 79, and the Midwest, and all of baseball, mourns this good man who made you feel like his next-door neighbor while you listened to him. WLW is streaming right now, and it is wall-to-wall memories of Joe, who was on the air for 37 years. If you are familiar with Joe and the Reds, you may want to go there just to listen, and remember, because baseball on radio will not quite be the same ever again.

I saw it and I'm still not sure that I believe it

photo credit Ken Papleo- Rocky Mountain News. 

Todd Helton (ex-UT QB) celebrates the Rockies first NL Pennant.

This tops the 1951 Giants, people.  The freakin' Colorado Rockies have won 21 of their last 22 games, and they are the champions of the National League.

Sure, I would have preferred the Cubs, but it wasn't their year, and it sure looks like it is going to be Rocktober, good luck to them in the Series.

Goodbye, Scooter, 1917-2007

I first heard his voice in the mid-60s, after CBS had bought the hated New York Yankees. CBS had Phil Rizzuto do the CBS Sports updates on the owned and operated radio stations, which included my Grandmother's favorite, WBBM Chicago. It was SO New York, which fit, as he was born in Brooklyn (as a Dodger fan, ironically) and lived across the river in Jersey. it was unlike anything I had ever heard.

He was known for a 13-year MLB baseball career that saw him play for 9 pennant-winners and 7 World Champions, and he won the AL MVP in 1950. However, in the Tri-State area around NYC, it was his broadcasting of Yankee games on WPIX that won the hearts of younger Yankee fans. Whether the occasional malaprop, the leaving early to "get over the George Washington Bridge", calling someone a "huckleberry" for making an error, he was beloved, and representing those few things a Yankee-hater like myself could actually like about them.

My mother, who raised me with the warning that I was to vote Democratic and root for the National League, often told me about what a great player the Scooter was, much to her chagrin. He was the ultimate Yankee, and I, along with baseball fans everywhere, send my condolences to his bride, Cora, his children, grandchildren, and the rest of the Yankee Nation.

P.S. I STILL want the Red Sox to win the AL EAST!

And then there was only one......

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a new home-run champion of all time, and his name is Barry Bonds, with a nod to Milo Hamilton, the Hall of Fame broadcaster who called Henry Aaron's 715th homer to pass Babe Ruth.

Love him or hate him, you CANNOT deny that Barry is the greatest all-around hitter of our lifetime.  Unless you wipe out ALL MLB records from 1985 on, you can't take this away from him, regardless of whether you want to or not.  Like John Kruk said tonight on SportsCenter, if you go after one, you'd better go after ALL of them and you'd better GET all of them.

I love Henry Aaron, he was a remarkable player and is a great humanitarian and leader.  What happened  tonight in no way denigrates his achievements, and his statement on the video board at AT&T Park once again reminded us of the class with which he has led his life.

Even before Barry ALLEGEDLY took steroids, he had won THREE Most Valuable Player awards (and I argue he should have won a fourth, in 1991) and was on his way to Cooperstown.  Nothing Bonds has done since should change that.

Yes, many people whom I hold dear have commented on my earlier post that he cheated, that he doesn't deserve it, yada yada yada.

Bless your hearts, I still love you all.

I have NEVER seen any other batter in my lifetime intentionally walked with this bases loaded, like Barry.  I have never seen any other player in my lifetime who frightened pitchers the way he has.  As a hitter, he has no peers.  NONE.

Barry, relax and enjoy this record, because Alex Rodriguez will take it from you by 2015!

You're probably not going to like this post...

Sometime within the next few days, Barry Lamar Bonds will tie and then break the all-time Major League Baseball home-run record of 755, held since 1974 by Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves.

When that occurs, most baseball fans who live outside San Francisco (where Bonds has plied his trade since 1993) will scream bloody murder that Bonds' record should be taken away from him, because HE CHEATED.

To which I respectfully reply, so what?  The hallowed halls of Cooperstown are FILLED with people who are alleged to have used corked bats, amphetamines, thrown illegal pitches like spitballs, or alleged to have used other means to scuff up baseballs.  Hell, it's even been insinuated that the spectacular 1951 stretch run of the New York Giants that led to the playoff and the Bobby Thomson homer that won the pennant was the result of illegal sign-stealing by Giants personnel using binoculars.

As they say, if you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'!  So, do NOT whine to me that Barry Bonds should be hated because he CHEATED, because it insults my intelligence and makes me angry.

On the other hand.......

Barry Bonds, unlike Hank Aaron, grew as the son of a good-but-could-have-been-greater ballplayer named Bobby Bonds in relative wealth in the Bay Area.  He went to good schools, and was awarded a scholarship at Arizona State University, long thought of as a GREAT baseball school.

Unlike Aaron, who had to play in the Negro Leagues before he was signed by the Braves, Bonds, while talented enough to win three NL MVP awards by 1994, has, by all accounts, treated everyone not named Bonds like a piece of shit.  His teammates, for the most part, barely tolerate him because of his self-absorption and his whining.  He is, in short, the LAST player you would want to break this historic record and the LAST person you want as the public face of Major League Baseball.

The fact remains, however, that, even if EVERYTHING in the book, GAME OF SHADOWS, is true, Barry Bonds would NOT have used if it had not been for the fact that MLB executives, the MLB Players Association, and the media turned a blind eye to the fact that stars like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were apparently using performance-enhancing drugs, and breaking the single-season homer record while doing it.  Hell it wasn't even ILLEGAL in MLB in the late 90s. 

If no one in MLB cared then, why make the fuss now?

Because Bonds is widely perceived to be an asshole, that's why.  Too bad, folks, he may well be all of that and more, but ask yourself this question: If it was THAT important to you, why didn't you as questions in 1998, when media-friendly McGwire and Sosa were in the homer race?  

BECAUSE YOU LIKED THEM, THAT'S WHY.

See, I understand that Barry is hardly anyone's ideal as a human being, and I can understand those who grew up idolizing Hank Aaron (justifiably so, I might add) might be pissed off that this punk is going to break the record.  From an intellectual standpoint, it's more honest not to want the record broken from THAT line of reason than the whines that Bonds is a cheater.  That, I understand.

Two things: First, I have outlined why the cheating line falls on deaf ears here.  Second, as Bonds himself has acknowledged, he won't have the record for 33 years as Aaron has, as Alex Rodriguez, at the tender age of 32, is about to hit his 500th homer in the next day or so. Barring injury, it's not a stretch to think that A-Rod will pass Bonds in the next 6-7 years.  If that happens, good for everyone.

Finally, my point is this: it's OK to hate Barry for being a prick and a punk, just don't insult any of us by calling him a cheater.

He wasn't the first, and he sure as hell won't be the last.

Way to go, Big Hurt!

Photo credit to ERIC MILLER/REUTERS

It still hurts to see Frank Thomas in any other uniform other than that of the Chicago White Sox, whom he left after the 2005 World Series Championship season.

However, today, to use a Bill Simmons line, it got a little dusty in here when I read that the Big Hurt had hit his 500th career home run, capping a Hall of Fame-bound career in that most appropriate of places, the Metrodome, against the Twins, against whom he has hit 50 of his 500 blasts.

I watched Frank is his rookie year and knew he would be a star, and he has been all that and more. Bravo, Big Hurt, we are all proud of you!