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I love baseball.  It’s one of those things that I hold on to from my childhood.

I love that the season lasts so long and that it is the most statistically meaningful sport there is.  Nine players must bast in order.  There’s no strong side or power position that takes care of the brunt of the work.

I used to request the first week of the season off from work.  I didn’t even watch every game I could, but knowing that the season was going and having some games available was relaxing enough for me.  Even if I don’t have the chance to take opening week off, I still enjoy that first game of the season.  Opening night.

Presented in HD on ESPN and brought to us by some car, a deodorant, and a beer, opening night is still opening night.  The season has begun.  Watching that first pitch and not even remembering whether it was a strike or not.  Baseball is baseball.

With that first pitch, I know that there are a couple thousand games to follow.  I believe the number is 2,429 barring any rain outs or other cancellations for various reasons.

It’s peace in my mind knowing that the cold winter is over and that spring has officially begun.  To hell with Easter and bunny rabbits and all other signs of spring.  Baseball is what I need and I relish in that first pitch.

So Major League Baseball has decided to outsource the home field for opening day this season.  To deliver to the another country in a completely different time zone our first pitch.

Disappointment is waking up in the morning, checking headlines and seeing that the game has completed.  That the opening game of the season was an exciting game that went 10 innings.  That game two was a well pitched game by Harden that caused a split between Boston and Oakland.  That I missed it and somehow the season has begun without me.

I suppose I can still enjoy the first game on Sunday night on ESPN sponsored by a car, a beer, and Viagra all the same.  But it won’t be the same.  I can look at the standings right now and there are already a couple games played.

I’ve been cheated.  I’m disappointed.  I’ll probably get over it.

Seems to be the nature of corporations in general.

Popularity: 32% [?]

Apparently this is news.

Churches Must Address Packers

Are you kidding me?

I’ve written about the whole deity supporting one team over another before- maybe too much, but it’s really annoying to me.

It ends like this.

“The spirit of God gives us power not just to be ordinary people, but extraordinary people,” the priest said. “You give it your all. Don’t just try to survive. You thrive.”

The Rev. John Becker of Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church just a few blocks south of Lambeau Field said he has seen the Packers Prayer, too, but never read it.

Certainly, he said, some of his parishioners will be praying for a win Sunday. Children in the church’s school offered a special petition last week during a Mass, praying for a Packers victory.

Privately, the priest admitted, he would, too.

“I am very strong supporter of the Packers. I will say, ‘God’s will be done,’ but please may it be that the Packers win,” he said, laughing.

We’ll see how that goes for them.

Popularity: 45% [?]

Sorry to add this. I think everybody needs a break from the real world. Mine comes with baseball. I’m always sad to see the season end. I’m always so excited to see it begin.

Often, though, I miss most of the season. It goes right on by as I get older. I try to make up for it by paying attention to the postseason.

For many years I would have considered baseball to be the closest thing to religion that I have ever felt. Not anymore. Music gets me much further now.

For several years I ran an online baseball league. It was fun. For a while. Then the constant bickering and fighting over this or that drove me away. I let it go and have been unable to see baseball the same again. These guys were huge fans. Many of them from New England.

I learned in my years of this league that Boston fans may be the most intellectual fans in baseball, but they are the most annoying. I will never root for a Boston team. When I see them on television I am amazed at how they are all the same.

And now they are winners. Mark Kriegel put it in very good words today in an article for FOX Sports.

Rather, what was stunning about the drone, is how much the droners sounded like Yankees fans.

If there really was a Curse, as Red Sox fans like to say, perhaps it came with a codicil: You become what you hate.

So true. For years their payroll has been number two in MLB. Nobody talks about that. Where is ESPN headquartered? Peter Gammons? Boston is America’s Team the same way that Atlanta was for so many years. TBS shoved them down our throats. ESPN is more subliminal about their love for the Red Sox.

They loathed the Yankees for so long that they have actually become a blue-collar version. Definitely more annoying, louder, etc.

One of my cutomers is from the Boston area. He fits the mold perfectly. When he calls I have to pull the phone away from my ear. The screaming hurts.

People know I enjoy baseball and they ask me at the start of every season and then again at playoff time who I like. I don’t believe in rooting for a team forever. No sense in it. My answer this postseason?

Anybody but the Red Sox.

Popularity: 21% [?]