Opening Day

“The greatest figure the world of sport has ever known has passed from the field. Game called on account of darkness. Babe Ruth is dead. There have been mighty champions in their day and time from John L. Sullivan to Jack Dempsey – such stars as Bobby Jones, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, on and on, who walked along the pathway of fame. But there has been only one Babe Ruth – one Bambino, who caught and held the love and admiration of countless millions around the world.”

-Grantland Rice, 1948

I used to read baseball columns by Red Smith and Grantland Rice in my sportswriting class, mouth agape. Now, this was writing. They wrote great columns about other sports, too, but there’s just something about baseball that lends itself to flowery writing and beautiful imagery more than any other sport. It has a majestic quality about it. It just seems so much more important than any sport. Like this sport might actually matter.

Opening day is always a special time, too.

Perhaps it’s the fact that in April, everybody is .500. Every team is in the race and every team has hope. And who doesn’t love hope? Who doesn’t love new beginnings, fresh starts? Anything is possible.

Perhaps it’s the fact that baseball begins at the advent of spring. One of the best times of the year, it signifies that summer is just around the corner. And who doesn’t love summer? More importantly, who doesn’t love being at a baseball stadium during the summer? For three hours, there is nothing but the game.

Perhaps it’s the fact that this is America’s oldest sport. We have seen the pictures of people wearing another era’s clothing, top hats and suits, all at the ballpark to watch the greats. It’s amazing to think that Albert Pujols and Babe Ruth played the same sport. So much has changed and yet so much has stayed the same. No other sport had an opening day so long ago, in such a different time.

But, it’s something more than any of these things. It has to do with the actual game itself. The layout of the field. The gargantuan stadiums. The freshly cut grass, the hot dogs, the beer, the vendors, the everything.

So, what is it that’s so beautiful about baseball? What is it about this game that makes it seem like it’s more than a game? What’s so gorgeous about someone hurling a ball 90 feet towards a five-sided piece of rubber, hoping beyond all hope that someone holding a bat won’t hit the ball 450 feet over a fence into the dark night sky? What’s so magnificent about someone with a glove diving, contorting, sacrificing his body just so a ball scorched 6,000 miles an hour can land safely in his mitt, all to record a single out? What’s so glorious about someone hitting a ball deep into the corner of the outfield, running, running, hustling, hustling, just to make it to a square bag called third base, and sometimes, miraculously, back home where he started.

What’s so beautiful about baseball? Who knows. But there’s just something about it, something I’ll never place or be able to describe, that makes it the most visually gorgeous of all sports. All I know is I’m happy it started yesterday. I’m excited to see these things, these indescribable things on a baseball diamond, things that make me think, for three or so hours, that everything will be alright and that everything in this world is beautiful.

-Flying Murino

Murino's Musings

New York Sports

• As a Mets fan, I couldn’t be more thrilled with the Putz trade. To have this guy as an 8th inning guy is just spectacular. I guess you have to worry about his injuries, but he should be fine. Putz is a top 3 set-up man. Before an injury-plauged 2008, Putz had 2 seasons of at least 36 saves, an ERA 2.30 or under and a WHIP under 1.00!

• On the other hand, it’s tough to lose the defense of Endy Chavez. It’s extremely valuable to have a 4th outfielder you can go to in the late innings of a game you’re winning who you know will make all the plays in the field. Joe Smith is also a very, very good pitcher. But, this is a risk the Mets had to make.

• As for Sabathia, that’s an interesting deal. The player option after three years makes me nervous, if I’m a Yankee fan. Does C.C. really hate New York THAT much? Is he nervous he’ll just be itching to get out of there in three years? Again, though, I think this is a risk the Yankees had to make. He’s an incredible pitcher, and although many have concerns about his future health because of weight problems, he hasn’t broken down yet.

• Also on the Yankees front, it looks like they are the frontrunners for Burnett. Don’t like the move. He’s a good pitcher, but he’s never on the field. And I don’t consider him elite and therefore not worth the 5 years and $80 million it’s being reported he was offered. Also, even when he is on the field, he is extremely inconsistent.

• I haven’t had this much fun watching the Knicks since Latrell Sprewell was a star on the team. For the first time in years, it seems as if the team genuinely cares about basketball. And even after the trades, which supposedly mailed in the season for the Knicks, and the injuries, which are piling up faster than a Michael Crabtree 40, they have continued to fight hard. David Lee is the latest injury. We’ll see how they respond, but I give all the credit in the world to Mike D’Antoni, who has been even better than anyone could have imagined. He’s the best coach the Knicks have had since Van Gundy and Riley.


National Sports

• Interesting NBA trade. Suns get Jason Richardson, Jared Dudley and a 2nd round pick. Bobcats get Boris Diaw, Raja Bell and Sean Singletary. Suns improve offensively, while Bobcats improve defensively. I really like Diaw. I think if he is used well, he can be a very good NBA player. He has regressed in recent seasons, but he has definite talent. And Raja Bell is a shutdown-defender, which every championship team needs. Richardson is a scorer. Plain and simple. I think the Bobcats actually get the slightly better end of the deal because they get two useful players. I don’t consider Jared Dudley useful as anything but an 8th man type. Overall, an interesting and pretty even trade.

• I must agree with my colleague, The Sherm, in that Lebron may be the best player in the NBA right now. I argued Kobe last year, and it’s still really close, but Lebron seems to be much more of a team player and is infinitely better at keeping his teammates involved and interested. Lebron’s numbers are slightly down this year because he’s playing five less minutes a game. He doesn’t need to play 40 mins a game anymore, with the addition of Mo Williams, the steady play of Zydrunas Ilgauskas and the emergence of Delonte West as a solid 4th option.

• How bout Carmelo pouring in 33 last night for the Nuggets, tying the record for points in a quarter? He can play, too. Right now, the Nuggets are my pick to play the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. Chauncey Billups makes that team for real.

NHL > NBA?

I will always love basketball more than hockey. Basketball is my favorite sport to play and one of my favorites to watch. So, I never thought I’d be saying this, but:

Thank god the hockey playoffs are starting up again tonight, because the NBA playoffs have been just awful. As for hockey? Incredible.

The Sharks-Stars 4OT masterpiece was probably the best hockey game I’ve ever seen and, logically, Marty Turco and Evgeni Nabokov put in two of the best goaltending performances I’ve ever seen. I can’t even imagine going out there for the 4th overtime and being able to walk, let alone ice skate with any urgency!

Yes, my favorite team, the New York Rangers, failed to advance to this round. This definitely puts a damper on the rest of the playoffs, but you have to realize – I haven’t been this big into hockey for about ten years. When the Rangers started going downhill in the late 90s, I lost interest and I was always more of a basketball fan anyway.

But, there’s one thing that can’t be denied. The NHL playoffs this year have blown the NBA playoffs out of the water.

I didn’t see this coming at all, with how competitive the Western Conference was this year. But, the conference's first round was an absolute bore, with the higher seeds toppling the lower ones easily. Same with the Eastern Conference, although surprisingly, the Celtics and Pistons were pushed a bit. The games themselves have been downhill since Game 1 of the Spurs-Suns series, in which players hit a series of clutch shots, including Tim Duncan nailing his first three of the season to put it into a second overtime.

The second round has been more of the same. Every home game has won. Yawnnnnnnn.
Not the case in the NHL.

There was the drama of Sean Avery’s stick-wielding antics in front of nemesis Martin Brodeur. And the brilliant 7 game series between the Flyers and Capitals, decided in overtime no less. And, of course, the valiant comebacks by the Rangers and Sharks, only to fall short. The best part about the NHL playoffs? They’ve been unpredictable.

Look at the first round. The 6th seeded Avalanche beat the 3rd seeded Wilds. The 7th seeded Flames pushed the 2nd seeded Sharks to 7. The 8th seeded Bruins did the same to the top seeded Canadiens. The 6th seeded Flyers toppled the 3rd seeded Capitals.

And now, the Eastern Conference Finals features a 2 vs. a 6 and the Western Conference Finals is a 1 vs.5 matchup. Hardly what anyone saw coming.

My final point is a simple one: nothing beats hockey playoffs. Nothing beats the intensity that comes with one shot of the puck, or one freak play, defining an entire team’s fate.

I’ll still be watching Kobe, Paul and Garnett go at it. But, for some reason, I think Crosby, Franzen and Turco may provide the better entertainment.

Fantasy Does Not Equal Reality

The next time I say Fausto Carmona has great stuff and someone replies with, “But, he doesn’t strike enough guys out,” I am going to throw up in my mouth and then spit it on that person.

Too harsh? I don’t care. This is a FREAKOUT.

Fantasy baseball is ruining sports. People ignore the key word. FANTASY. Per dictionary.com:

Fantasy (n) – imagination, especially when extravagant and unrestrained.

In other words: fake, irrelevant and meaningless.

Now, I love fantasy sports. It's just that you have to be able to separate fantasy from reality.

I first began to realize the absurdity of the situation when an unnamed brother of a fellow SportsFreaker said that Nomar Garciaparra was a better player than Derek Jeter.

Looking at the statistics, he just might have a case. Their career batting averages are similar, .317 for Jeter and .315 for Nomar. Nomar has the clear advantage in power. His numbers usually were closer to the stereotypical 30 HR, 100 RBI power season than Jeter, who usually hit between 15 and 20 HR and closer to 80 RBIs.

Good thing stats don’t mean anything. How about we take into account the fact that if I had one at-bat to save the world from ambiguously evil aliens, I would probably choose Derek Jeter in his prime. Did anyone ever get this guy out in the clutch?

What about intangibles? What about the fact that Jeter was the face and leader of one of the greatest dynasties in sports and yet never seemed to relent and bow down to the pressure.

I’m not taking away anything from Garciaparra. He’s a fantastic player. But, he's not as good as Derek Jeter.

Another thing that is never taken into account in fantasy sports is defense! That’s half of the player’s worth! Defense is incredibly important in all sports and baseball is no exception. If a pitcher has a bad defense behind him, he will have no real shot to succeed, unless he is Joba Chamberlain, who strikes everyone out on two pitches. But for groundball pitchers, especially, defense is vital.

Which brings me back to my original point: the strikeout. Perhaps this is just my personal baseball opinion, but I don’t care how a pitcher gets someone out. If Fausto Carmona or Chien-Ming Wang get people out on groundball outs, so be it.

And don’t even get me started on the merits of “wins” or “saves” as an indicator of a pitcher’s performance.

When it comes right down to it, my main point is this: athletes are human beings, not numbers. Let’s take into account everything they do on the field.

An Introduction to the Man Crush

Beads of sweat trickled down my face as I searched and searched and searched. My mom called me for dinner. I told her to go to hell, of course. This was not a laughing matter, you see. This was serious. Very serious.


It was fantasy baseball draft time and it was the 16th round. And I was choosing between Josh Hamilton and Michael Cuddyer to fill my final OF slot. Now, everyone knows Hamilton has talent. I mean, he hit .292, with 19 HR and 47 RBI in just 90 games with the Reds last year. Cuddyer is a solid player, as well.

But, he just didn’t have the upside that Hamilton did, so I took Josh. Little did I know this was the start of an intense man-crush, a man-crush so intense that it threatened to overtake my man-crush for Kobe Bryant, the best basketball player on earth.

Josh Hamilton is currently hitting .336 with 5 HR and 28 RBI. Whoa. I loved Hamilton’s swing and I knew he was a top prospect from before his druggie days. But, how could I have expected this? I mean, the guy is absolutely tearing it up. How could I not develop a man-crush on him? Going 2/5 with 2 RBIs seemingly every night will do that to a fella.

Fantasy sports is one way you develop a man crush. You develop a relationship with these players. You check on them every day, you develop a bond with them. These are your players. You are free to bench them if they go 0-4 and start them if they rip one out.

I’ve also developed man crushes on players from my favorite teams. Chad Pennington, Laveranues Coles, Jose Reyes, David Wright, Patrick Ewing and John Starks come to mind. I went to war with these players, watched their every game and cheered for them.

Finally, there’s the man-crush on the player that just absolutely awes you with their skill. Kobe Bryant comes to mind instantly. The guy is just unbelievable. He can fly like Jordan, shoot the lights out of the ball, take it to the hoop and defend with passion. Plus, I think Kobe is a pretty good guy despite the crap he did to his wife. At least he came out and admitted it, though. Brett Favre and Ken Griffey, Jr. are other ones. Great guys, amazing players.

A man crush is something different than just liking a player, though. It’s indescribable. When you see this player, you just smile and laugh, because you hope he succeeds in every way possible.

With that, here’s introducing a new weekly feature: Man-Crush of the Week. Josh Hamilton leads it off. Does he overtake Kobe on my man-crush status meter? Not quite. Hamilton has a bit of an advantage because he’s on my fantasy team, but Kobe is one of the best players in history. I make it a point to watch Kobe. However, if Joshie (yes, I call him Joshie now) keeps going 2/5 with 2 RBIs every game, he may just make the move to #1.

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