So I'm looking through my annual baseball magazine and I thought I'd make a few statements about the upcoming 2010 season. First of all, a little background...I have been a baseball fan for over 30 years. Used to be that hockey was my favourite sport, but baseball has been number one in my heart for a very long time. I'm gearing up to see my 21st consectutive Toronto Blue Jays' home opener. Even when I lived on the West Coast for a year and a half, I still flew back in early April to catch the home opener. Now that's dedication. The baseball magazine that I mentioned used to be called Street And Smiths but was sold to The Sporting News a few years ago. I've been collecting these annual magazines since 1987. It contains about 150 pages of predictions for the upcoming year along with pages and pages of stats. I love stats!! I live my life by stats!!! How many people know the career leader in triples? How many people know who had the most walks in a single season? How many people care? Makes no difference to me!!
Anyway, the mag claims the Jays will end up in last place in their division, the most competitive division in all of baseball. I disagree. I know Roy Halladay has flown the coop (and I truly hope he does well in the National League), but we have some great players still. Shaun Marcum is coming back, Ricky Romero is a great lefty and we still have the best second baseman in all of baseball in Aaron Hill. Now, can we compete with the likes of the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees? No, I don't think so. But I do think we'll give Tampa Bay a run for third in the division. Hell, we may even end up with a winning record! Either way it goes, you can bet I'll be at the Dome for at least 20 games this year, and I'll be cheering the boys on every step of the way!
Now, for those who care, a few more predictions:
The World Series will be won by the St. Louis Cardinals over the New York Yankees.
The Chicago Cubs will NOT win the World Series for the 114th consecutive year!
Albert Pujols will have a career year (which is saying a lot with the career he's had so far) and will win the Triple Crown for the first time since 1967!! The Triple Crown, by the way, is won when one player leads his league in batting average, home runs and RBI's...the last player to do it was Carl Yastrzemski 43 years ago!
Roy Halladay will win the Cy Young award as best pitcher in the National League.
Ichiro Suzuki will not get 200 hits for the first time in his career.
Derek Jeter will win the American League MVP award.
And, I will be very drunk and very happy on the night of April 12th!!!!
GO JAYS GO!!!!
Hey...once you sober up maybe you can introduce your nephew to the wonderful world of baseball. I'm sure he'd love to go the the Skydome...Rogers Centre...or whatever it's called now...with Uncle Rob.
ReplyDelete"How many people know the career leader in triples? How many people know who had the most walks in a single season?"
ReplyDeleteYou just mean Jays players, right? Paul says a) Tony Fernandez and b) John Olerud. We enjoyed reading your predictions, but Paul disagrees with the Derek Jeter pick.
Maybe the four of us should go to a game together sometime?
Of course, you'd have to put up with me telling my "I saw Kelly Gruber at a Styx concert" story. That's the whole story; I just like to tell it. ;-)