Baseball

[smc]

Soon this thread will be hopping the way the hockey thread hops. Spring training games are in full bloom and are marching towards Opening Day. It is a well-known fact that baseball season means a better world for all.

It also brings out the craziness in people. Take my friend Pat, another Boston fan who nevertheless is buying into the hysteria here in Red Sox Nation that maybe our Old Towne Team doesn't have enough offense after losing Jason Bay and making no big-bat acquisitions in the off-season. Pat, who hates the Yankees as much as the next guy in these parts, told me the other day that there is no way the Red Sox will come in first in the the AL East division. Being a serious baseball fan, I replied that it is always a crap shoot in the strongest division in baseball, that the Yankees also have some offensive problems (mainly in the form of old men), but that perhaps it will be a wild-card year for our team.

Pat's response was to become quite agitated, quietly scream about the loss of Jason Bay, and "correct" me: "No, he said. You don't understand. The Yankees are going to win the division hands down. There's no question."

I offered Pat a friendly bet: I would pick the Red Sox and he would pick the Yankees (despite that a bet would mean he would root against his favorite team), and the loser would pick up the full tab in October at our favorite local oyster bar.

"No!" Pat insisted. "This is serious, and we should have a real bet. $50 says the Yankees win the division by 6 games or more!"

My instinct was to phone Pat's doctor. Clearly, he was having some sort of mental breakdown. But I made the bet. I mean, really, 6 games!

I tell this to all of you baseball fan friends here on the board only to remind you of the madness that will soon spread in those few cities where baseball is treated with religious, or near-religious fervor. Boston, of course, is the center of the baseball universe, but you know which few other places I mean: Philadelphia and St. Louis, primarily, and parts of Chicago (where genuine White Sox fans, and the 1/3 or so of Cubs fans who aren't just on some kind of bandwagon) reside.