I'm a born and raised New Yorker, and I love the Yankees. That's why what I say may shock you. This year, I want the Red Sox to win. Historically speaking, the Red Sox deserve victory.
Around now, the awful stats dismissed as "slumps" in April take on a worrisome import. After all, it's a quarter of the way into the season, and the freakish stats of April (remember when Barry Bonds was hitting .500?) have regressed to reality. But even now, luck still plays an enormous role in performance, particularly for pitchers.
The Oakland A's were the first team to extensively (and successfully) use sabermetrics, or scientific, statistical baseball analysis.
Two new stadiums debuted this April: Citizens Bank Park, the new home of the Phillies, and PETCO Park, home field of the Padres.
As of this writing, the Detroit Tigers are 11-8, a strong third place in the AL Central division.
On Friday, FOX put aside its usual Friday night lineup to show the first of the regular season matchups between the Red Sox and Yankees. Regular season baseball rarely is shown on primetime network television.
Rick Reed retired on Thursday. In case you've already forgotten, Rick Reed was a control artist, a pitcher whose fastball could only touch 90 with the help of a hurricane tailwind.
The AL East is all about the "Holy War" and the inevitable Boston-New York ALCS. But what about the unheralded, underdog contenders in the AL East? Not the Orioles, bloated with yet another binge of over-aged free agents, nor the perennial basement-dwelling Devil Rays.