2008 Begins

The Major League Baseball regular season is back in swing after a long winter of waiting and then into Spring Training of boringness.  The regular season brings more of an experience and not as much of watching paint dry for a month and half.  Although Spring Training offers a fresh start to the players who hadn’t done anything all winter, I feel that Spring Training games do not need to shown on the television wasting time for great shows on ESPN such as First and Ten or Around the Horn.  With all the new packages that cable providers offer, I feel as though the games should be offered on only the purchased packages. The idea of Spring Training is great although it offers just more time for players to get hurt, just like the Bowl Championship Series NCAA system, which needs to be dropped, but that’s another story.  Newly loaded teams like the Detroit Tigers and the Los Angeles Dodgers hope to make a splash in their already tough divisions.
            As a member of Red Sox Nation I hope annually that the Yankees fail miserably and the Sox do well.  I feel this will be the case this season as the Yankees headed by new manger Joe Girardi, will finish third behind the first place Sox and the surprise second, the Baltimore Orioles.  Finishing behind the Yanks will be the Blue Jays and as usual, the Tampa Bay Rays.  The AL Central will be won by the Cleveland Indians who went home disappointed after a blown lead in the ALCS to the Red Sox.  The newly reloaded Tigers will finish second and the White Sox third and the Twins finishing just slightly behind them.  As usual, the Royals will have a disappointing season although they will finish better than their 68 win season last year.  Moving to the west, the Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim with new players such as Torii Hunter will help them win their division.  Following will be the Athletics, Mariners, and Rangers respectively.  This season the wild-card team will be from the central division in the Tigers due to the struggles of the east teams and the seemingly constant downfall of the AL West.
            The National League hasn’t had great seasons in general but this season will be the year where that all comes to a close with the magnificent Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers under new manager Joe Torre.  In the east, the Mets will reign over the division following the pick up of Johan Santana and their complete collapse to the Philadelphia last season.  The Nationals will be a surprise of the year finishing second and winning the wild card.  Following them will be the Braves, Philly, and the Marlins.  The strength of the NL is in the central and the standings will be a little surprising.  The young Brewers will finish first with Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder as their power sources.  Finishing behind them is the St Louis, Chicago, Houston, Pittsburg and Cincinnati.  In the completely changed National League West from last season, they became the strongest conference in the NL.  Two teams from that division made the playoffs, one to the World Series, and a third team would have made it if not for the extra game having to be played to determine who made it in.  This season the Dodgers will be resilient and come back from last years disappointing year.  Followed by them will be the Rockies, Padres, Diamondbacks and Giants respectively.
            The new season in spring will bring its surprise teams and of course the no doubters but will of course bring all the satisfaction of baseball season back to the hearts of many Americans.