Say, what were you doing at 3:05 PDT this morning? If you are a card carrying member of the Red Sox Nation then you were parked in front of a television watching the opening game of the 2008 Major League Baseball season.
Yep, Boston vs. the Oakland Athletics at Japan's Tokyo Dome in the first game that counts this year. The defending World Series champions play two this week in Japan before heading stateside for an exhibition game against the Dodgers Saturday before what will be the largest crowd ever assembled to see a baseball game, over 100,000 at the L.A. Coliseum.
You know makes this '08 season even sweeter? No Barry Bonds! I couldn't have been happier to see his fat ass on the TV the other day. Apparently he is not retired and is working out and waiting for the phone to ring for some team to make him an offer to play another season.
But check this out: Because not one of the thirty major league teams are interested, the Baseball Players Association is said to be conducting an investigation to determine whether collusion might be involved. Really? You don't think every team came to the same conclusion on their own on this one? Bonds is 43 years old, up to his steroid yoked neck in legal trouble and is universally despised. No please.
One more sidebar on the Bonds tip. Thanks to blog reader Rose for turning me onto this humorous little song by Dan Bern called The Year By Year Home Run Totals Of The Great Barry Bonds.
*The best day of the whole year? Of course it's the Mariners home opening this Monday!! Play Ball!
I will be at the Coliseum game can't wait! Last I heard it was 125,000 people with standing room only left
Posted by: Raul | March 25, 2008 at 06:21 AM
I like Dan Berns. He has another song called God Says No, which I enjoy very much.
Thanks God for Baseball.
Go Angels.
Posted by: Edmund F | March 25, 2008 at 06:24 AM
I recently purchased a high def tv and have to admit I have been really looking forward to the start of the baseball season . . .
Go Angels!
Posted by: Diane | March 25, 2008 at 07:30 AM
Yeah, MLB without Barry Bonds.
Go Dodgers!!
Posted by: Janet | March 25, 2008 at 07:51 AM
Raul, you're so lucky. I put my chance to go on the hands of my coworker and it never worked out, so I'm not going. Sadly. Have fun.
I hope Bonds doesn't get signed.
Posted by: Jerry | March 25, 2008 at 07:53 AM
Oh yeah Beano -
-Ceremonial first run around the bases by 10-year old Ben Comer of Renton. Go Ben
-Presentation of Awards: Ted Walsh, MLB Equipment Manager of the Year Go Ted
-Go Rangers !
Posted by: db | March 25, 2008 at 08:37 AM
I am surprised that you aren't following the WHL teams up in your area Bean. The Tri-City Americans just won the division title and there is all kinds of exciting hockey being played up there.
It is so much better than the "hurry up and wait" of baseball. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a baseball game as much as the next guy that needs his sleep...Hockey is just better.
Posted by: Chris | March 25, 2008 at 09:06 AM
Go A's and maybe a small go angels!
Posted by: Liz | March 25, 2008 at 09:52 AM
It's not really baseball season until the Boys of Summer leave Florida, the Marlins excepted of course.
I stare out the window at a bleak landscape,leafless trees, gray skies. How sweet it is to know that soon I'll watch twenty minutes of action crammed into a four hour game. I'll work on my tan in the upper deck and for a while - all will be right with the world. You can't get that at a hockey game.
Posted by: brother john | March 25, 2008 at 11:16 AM
Thanks to the A's blowing it today, they are already 1 game back. If the season ended today, there would be a 3-way tie for 1st place in the AL West! Hope the Angels win the coin flip! =)
Posted by: Jeanie | March 25, 2008 at 01:04 PM
For those of you who bitch about the length of the games, don't go and don't watch them! No one's forcing you to watch.
One of the only games with no time limit. Taking your kids to a game, teaching them the finer points of playing, not much better than that!
Posted by: Laker Fan | March 25, 2008 at 01:29 PM
I was there at the Coliseum in May 1959. It is still the largest crowd to ever witness a professional baseball game. The event was Roy Campanella Night, an exhibition fund raiser to honor the injured former catcher. The attendance was announced as 93,103. I was 11 years old and sitting in the 75th row the players on the field looked like ants, except everyone got real excited when the ant in the wheelchair rolled to the mound.
Posted by: larry | March 25, 2008 at 02:00 PM
Bean,
I looked for you in Arizona last week. I went to 3 games in 24 hours.
Go Dodgers!
Posted by: Fred G. | March 25, 2008 at 02:30 PM
Well, thanks for posting it! I do love me some Dan Bern; his annual crop of baseball songs almost makes up for his recent determination to sound exactly like Bob Dylan. Everyone should go see him (Dan Bern, not Bob Dylan - though you could see him, too) when he comes to your town.
Okay, MLB, here's why no one's hiring Barry Bonds: The guy clearly doesn't want to be out on the field, so that eliminates the National League. All the AL teams seem to be pretty satisfied with their current DHs. When a team like the Royals gets really desperate around August, then we'll see how badly he really wants to play.
Posted by: Rose | March 25, 2008 at 05:39 PM