Tuesday, April 04, 2006

The Daily Grind Begins
(Or, Welcome to the Working Week)

Games I followed yesterday for at least one pitch via the radio, television or the Internet:

Washington at New York
Boston at Texas
Atlanta at Los Angeles
LA/Anaheim at Seattle
Florida at Houston
San Francisco at San Diego
New York at Oakland

The thing that struck me about Opening Day: how much the usual suspects dominated the headlines. Schilling, Johnson, Peavey, Glavine, Ortiz, A-Rod, Matsui, Piazza, Oswalt and of course Pujols. Although the action wasn’t scintillating yesterday, the stars came up big as soon as the curtain went up on the season.

Here are a couple of snippets from Rob Neyer's midday chat this afternoon:

Dave (Enid, OK): Someone's gotta ask this: What do you think of the whole Barry Bonds/syringe thing last night?

Rob Neyer: (12:29 PM ET ) I think it's like throwing cookies at the Cookie Monster.

d (st. louis): Do you believe an * is needed for Rollins streak?

Rob Neyer: (12:45 PM ET ) That's up to you, my friend. I don't believe Rollins' accomplishment -- or any other -- deserves an official stamp of approval or disapproval. It's what it is, and each of us us free to decide what it means.

Justin (NYC, NY): It's time for the requisite steroid question. What do you think of ... the whole situation?

Rob Neyer: (12:20 PM ET ) You mean in 50 words or less? ... There have always been distasteful things happening in baseball, and this was just one of them. The game will not only survive, it will thrive. Just as it always has.

Rob's comes across as a pretty liberal guy usually, and rarely strays from trying to look at "the big picture." His work, in general, doesn't mean nearly as much to me as it did four or five years ago; in fact, with the ESPN Insider wall that his columns are buried behind, I rarely read him at all. But he still remains an interesting voice among the scribes. And he's a fan of The Flaming Lips, which indicates his musical tastes are somewhere north of pedestrian.

Today's first pitch is less than one hour away in Chicago.

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