Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Leave it to the Tigers...
To coax me into picking up the pen ... errr... I mean pound the keyboard for the first time this baseball season. I'm testing out this whole MLB.com media frenzy with the All Access package this month, and my first impressions are mixed. Because there's no TV for this particular game, I'm listening to the Detroit-Toronto game via the Tigers' radio network. Sound is decent, about what you'd expect for a Real Audio feed. They sound a bit like mechanical-computer type voices. Something like Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey. In a few years everything will be digital anyway so this is just a small tread on the path to better things.
The reason this game has caught my attention is simply because of the records of these two teams: 1-5 and 5-1. One week ago, if I told you these two teams would be playing tonight with these records, most people would assume the Blue Jays would have the five wins, and the Tigers would have the five losses. But baseball, especially in the infancy of a season, is fun that way.
I'm not sure there is a must anything in April, but doesn't it seem like the early part of the season really does mean something? Especially at the extremes. I'm thinking of the Royals start last year, which propelled them to their best season in a decade. I'm thinking of the Tigers start last year, which propelled them to one of the worst seasons in baseball history.
I don't think the Blue Jays were going to do much exciting this year anyway. Mainly just hover around the .500 mark for most of the year. But how much deeper a hole can they dig here at the start before they're flirting with baseball oblivion? Lose tonight to the Tigers and they're 1-6. That's a couple weeks worth of work just to get back to .500.
I still think the Tigers are going to be bad, but win tonight, and they're 6-1. That's a couple weeks worth of baseball to enjoy being over .500. And for a team that lost 119 games last year, the idea of shooting for a .500 month of April must feel like Shangri-La.
---------------
To coax me into picking up the pen ... errr... I mean pound the keyboard for the first time this baseball season. I'm testing out this whole MLB.com media frenzy with the All Access package this month, and my first impressions are mixed. Because there's no TV for this particular game, I'm listening to the Detroit-Toronto game via the Tigers' radio network. Sound is decent, about what you'd expect for a Real Audio feed. They sound a bit like mechanical-computer type voices. Something like Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey. In a few years everything will be digital anyway so this is just a small tread on the path to better things.
The reason this game has caught my attention is simply because of the records of these two teams: 1-5 and 5-1. One week ago, if I told you these two teams would be playing tonight with these records, most people would assume the Blue Jays would have the five wins, and the Tigers would have the five losses. But baseball, especially in the infancy of a season, is fun that way.
I'm not sure there is a must anything in April, but doesn't it seem like the early part of the season really does mean something? Especially at the extremes. I'm thinking of the Royals start last year, which propelled them to their best season in a decade. I'm thinking of the Tigers start last year, which propelled them to one of the worst seasons in baseball history.
I don't think the Blue Jays were going to do much exciting this year anyway. Mainly just hover around the .500 mark for most of the year. But how much deeper a hole can they dig here at the start before they're flirting with baseball oblivion? Lose tonight to the Tigers and they're 1-6. That's a couple weeks worth of work just to get back to .500.
I still think the Tigers are going to be bad, but win tonight, and they're 6-1. That's a couple weeks worth of baseball to enjoy being over .500. And for a team that lost 119 games last year, the idea of shooting for a .500 month of April must feel like Shangri-La.
---------------
