Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Turn The Page

It's time to put the silliness that is the NFL season behind us and look forward to the glorious time that is the major league baseball season. Pitchers and catchers will be reporting to spring training next week and I'm sure I speak for 20% of the people when I say that it's about time. The baseball off-season is fun for about a minute and during the depths of winter, the new season seems further away than ever. But just when I'm about to be overcome by the despair and gloom of cold weather and long nights, spring training appears on the horizon to save the day.

I don't think that I need to remind everyone of my Superbowl pick (I was wrong. There, I said it, are you happy now, Paul?), but I will freely admit that football is not my forte. In fact it is nothing more than a mildly amusing distraction during the long harsh months of the baseball off season. I congratulate the Colts and Peyton Manning for winning it all. Perhaps now the sports writers can get off his back about never winning "the big one". Peyton can now make the same transition that Elway did. No one ever talks about how many he lost, just the one's that he won.

Also there is thankfully one more distraction to carry me through until the baseball season starts and that is college basketball. This week features the best rivalry in all of college basketball. The young, talented Tar Heels are taking on the evil Duke Blue Devils in Durham. I can't say that I'm an impartial observer of this game since I went to UNC in what seems like the 1940's at this point. Duke has had the better of this match-up since about the mid 90's and I think it's about time for the Tar Heels to turn the tables on the demons from Durham. A season sweep would be a nice place to start. UNC certainly has the better team, but conference rivalry games aren't necessarily won by the better team (e.g. UNC losing to NC State last weekend). I'll be watching closely tomorrow night and with any luck I'll be having a celebratory drink after the game is over. Regardless of the outcome the fortunes of the Tar Heels will keep me entertained right up until the baseball season starts. It's like they planned March Madness just for me.

It's a little too early for me to make predictions about the upcoming season but I will say this, it's going to be a lot of fun. I can't wait for Matsuzaka's first appearance at Yankee Stadium. I'm looking forward to watching major milestones being achieved (Multiple hitters going for 500 HR's, Glavine and Randy Johnson heading toward 300 wins. However, I refuse to acknowledge the sideshow that is Barry Bonds.). The pennant races should be just as exciting as ever and it will be warm enough to sit in the stands and actually enjoy the weather outside.

Spring may be weeks away, but spring training is right around the corner and that's good enough for me.

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