That Time Of Year

Well, it's that time of year again. The following month may very well be one of my favorite months of the year (October a close second). March is something sweet and oh-so fulfilling. It's not the "March Madness" (not a fan of basketball) or even spring that compels me the most. No, it's baseball's spring training. Yes, you read that right. Baseball. One of my favorite sports along with hockey and soccer. It doesn't take a genius to know that I am a Boston Red Sox fan, and have been for a dozen years. I'm not one of those fucking bandwagon jumpers who began to call themselves "Red Sox fans" once they won their first World Series in over 86 years in 2004. They piss me off. I am not only a Red Sox fan; I also follow Atlanta Braves and the Florida Marlins.

Instead of rambling on and on about baseball, I will only say a few things about it. If there are any questions or if you want to carry on the discussion, then please feel free to leave a comment. For the entire month of March a surplus of players (40 or so) of every baseball team (MLB, 30 teams) head south of the USA to practice, play exhibition games, while some will try to make the team. It's similar to hockey's pre-season, but with more sunshine, more positions to fill and more exhibition games (25-30). I am pretty sure a lot of people, especially non-Americans, hate the sport simply because they deem it "long" and "boring." The one thing I hate about that opinion/arguement is that baseball is not the only sport that can be "long" and/or boring. Hockey can be very boring if you watch to teams playing the trap. Soccer can be very boring (and long!) if both teams play defensively or don't have enough talent to score goals. However, the length of each baseball game (nine innings minimum, extra innings if game is tied) averages close to three hours. That may be very long to some, but to others time is not important. Personally, I don't look at how long a game is or how long it may be. I don't watch games thinking about it. Sure, there are some games that feel long, but what sport doesn't have that? I am more interested in the technique of the sport. The pitching. I love pitching. That is one of the reasons why I am a huge Red Sox fan, and also follow the Braves and Marlins.

I am not a die hard fan of the Braves or the Marlins - far from it - but I would like to think of myself as a real (die hard) fan of the Boston Red Sox. Sure, Boston's payroll is around 130 million (top 5 in the league, but far from New York yankees #1 with 200+ million) but they do develop a lot of good prospects. The reason I like the Florida Marlins is because of their ample young players with massive potential - not many teams have this. The ironic part is that the Marlins have the lowest payroll (if not lowest, then certainly very very close). They cannot afford to buy star players, but they do develop many of their players into stars. As soon as a Marlin player begins to get near star status the Marlins trade him for younger prospects. The reason? Money. They simply cannot afford to sign them to long deals worth a lot of money. That, or they just don't want to. Then again, hardly anyone comes to watch their games.

To give you an idea of what the Marlins produced before shipping away to other teams: Miguel Cabrera (3B, traded to Detroit), Josh Beckett (SP traded to Boston), Brad Penny (SP traded to LA - he isn't good now, but he certainly was in 2004), Jeremy Hermida (OF traded to Boston - not a star, but a pretty good young player), etc etc.

That said, I am very excited for the Red Sox this year. Arguably the best rotation (Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, John Lackey, Daisuke Matsuzaka & Clay Buckholtz) and defense entering this season. However, our offense is a question mark. Oh, and I love the addition of John Lackey - a real fucking bulldog on the mound.