Baseball is almost here!

Okay, the baseball season finally gets underway Sunday night! For Yankee fans like myself, it has been a long, anxious winter. Now, all of the nonsense can be put to bed for a while and we can play some ball!

For the Yankees,spring training wasn't really about anyone trying to make the club. The only spots open were backup catcher (Todd Pratt seems to have won that job), and the 5th starter in the rotation (Jeff Karstens won the job, but was injured over weekend). The Yanks, instead spent spring training dealing with the Alex Rodriguez situation. In truth,there isn't much to the "situation" at all, ARod's contract allows for him to opt-out at the end of this season. He likely will opt-out regardless of how this year goes, it's a business move, plain and simple.

Alex has this problem with the media, everytime he tries to speak about something, he makes it worse. ARod just has to finally realize that if he hits well and helps Yanks win, the fans will cheer him. Hopefully that is the last I will write about Alex's situation this year, but somehow I doubt it.

So, the season begins Monday afternoon at 1pm at The Stadium. The first litmus test of the year happens right away as Carl Pavano will start the opener. Since Carl has not pitched since July of 2005, ANYTHING he does will be an improvement. However, I will feel for Pavano if he gets shelled on Opening Day...the boos will be very loud. Conversely, should he pitch well against the Devil Rays, the fans will give him an ovation. Monday is one of the biggest days in Pavano's career.

Elsewhere around MLB in 2007, Barry Bonds will likely break Hank Aaron's career HR record. The wise money would say BB breaks the record at home. With Bonds approval rating outside of the Bay Area not much higher than GWB's, you know that he will limit his playing time largely to home dates. That's good for San Francisco fans, as they won't have much else to cheer about at SBC/AT&T (or whatever they call it now) Park outside of the All Star Game.

The newest phenom comes from Japan and Daisuke Matsuzaka will make his ML debut next week for the Red Sox. As good as "Dice-K" may be, there is no way the man can possibly be as good as the legendary claims about his ability. He does have a large assortment of pitches and is very durable, and Boston is counting on him,Beckett and Schilling to lead the Sox to the postseason.

The Cubs spent a lot of money on free agents, the Cardinals look to defend their title, the Mets try to duplicate last years' run ,while the Padres and Dodgers battle for the West crown. The NL has plenty of strong teams, and it should make for a great year.

In the AL, outside of the usual Boston/NYY race, there is the 4 team race in the Central and a very competitive West. Toronto is a good team, too bad for them they are forced to play in the East with Red Sox and Yankees.

BNF