Zapped

Big storm yesterday with a lot of lightning. I happened to be watching an Orioles game and to add injury to the insulting nature of watching the O's we had a lighting strike that took out the power and as an added bonus zapped our TV. Bummer.

Nails

Frank Chimero really nails it with his description of baseball. The pace of the game and the season mimic life - the ebb and flow of routine peppered with important moments and crises.

Merge Them

Not that this would help the woeful O's, but I like the idea of getting rid of the divisions entirely. Two leagues with 15 teams each. Top 4 make the playoffs. Simple. No weak teams from the central creeping in. No unbalanced schedule. Maybe I would hate the Yankees and Red Sox a little less if I didn't have to see them on TV so often.

5%

Now we are 5% through the MLB season. The Orioles have one victory and eight losses. I'm going to look at this in the best possible light - at least now I don't feel like I need to pay attention to this team. Plus, it's lacrosse season. So, I've got stuff to keep me occupied.

O No

Gonzales strikes again! Now that I've digested my dinner, I can think about that putrid game. I can deal with guys giving up hits, but walks are killers in the last inning. It's still early blah...blah...blah but you've got to win most games you are up a run in the 9th.

O-K

At least the O's won't lose 'em all this year. Last nights game was fun to watch. Atkins showed up, Roberts got a hit and Matusz showed some guts. The Rays got jobbed by the umps a few times (hate that even when it goes your way) and Gonzales almost blew it again but it all worked out in the end. On the TV broadcast, Roch did a decent job of replacing Jim Palmer. Opening day in the Yard today!

O boy

I watched the first couple of Orioles games this week and I'm worried. I didn't have high expectations, but I was hoping for .500 in a very tough division. If they can't beat the Rays in a series, who are the going to beat in the AL East (besides the Blue Jays, of course)?

The opening game loss was the hardest because the new big bucks closer blew it. The second was all about Longoria having a great night (which he will have many of). But the O's are going to need some luck this year and they just didn't have it in two games that they could have won.

I know we are only 1/80 of the way through the season and there were many positive things about the games (Millwood and Guthrie both pitched reasonably well, Jones looks very comfortable at the plate and Tejada might actually be able to play a competent third base) but a team like this needs to win some close ones to get momentum.

Sleep

I can't believe the Red Sox won that game last night. I love playoff baseball and usually watch most of each game, but these aren't my teams, so I decided to go to bed after the Rays 7th in which they scored 2 runs to make it 7-zip. Nobody comes back from 7-0 with 9 outs to go. I guess I missed a good game, but I did have a good night's sleep.

I was good luck for the Phillies though. I've been in Philadelphia the past two weeks and the Phils looked pretty good in their series with LA. Or, maybe it was that Furcal looked bad. Either way, all of my Philly friends are happy with it. Bully for them!