Baseball Weekend Preview

It’s a Thursday evening and I’m watching a combination of the Miami Heat and Lebron James chasing down their first title (I don’t know why I bothered, thanks for nothing OKC) and the Rays-Nationals tilt. Matt Moore vs. Bryce Harper volume I was rather anti-climatic.

That said, I’ve really come to love Thursday evenings. No matter what you do, it’s basically the unofficial start of the weekend. No matter how late you stay up, you can get through one day of anything pretty tired. Or in my past, pretty hungover. Thursdays are old man Fridays.

Also, I found this little beauty, ‘Let Teddy Win’. It’s simply one of the greatest blogs I’ve visited. It’s quite a little tradition within a tradition they’ve got going on in Washington. Teddy Roosevelt always loses the race. He’s never won one. I imagine there are a fair amount of Teddy fans out there who can relate, including the creator of the aforementioned LTW. If you don’t want to waste some of your day, don’t let yourself stumble upon that site.

Onto the weekend’s festivities.

1) New York Yankees (41-27) at New York Mets (38-32)
I’m sorry to do this, but I have to. ESPN will shove this series down your throat enough on their own, they don’t need my help. But both of these teams are playing pretty well. The Bombers are the toast of baseball right now. The Mets aren’t bad in their own right. Yes, this is the Sunday Night Baseball game of the week. C.C. Sabathia opposes R.A. Dickey in what should be must see TV, especially if you own both of these guys in fantasy baseball like I do.

2) Los Angeles Dodgers (42-28) at Anaheim Angels (38-32)
Sunny California baseball featuring nothing but California teams in this series. It would be a bit more of a jewel if Matt Kemp was trading off innings in center with Mike Trout, but it’s still a nice match-up of teams who have proven they can withstand the poundings of a Major League season. How the heck are the Dodgers continuing to play well? The lineup is barren.

3) Minnesota Twins (27-40) at Cincinnati Reds (38-30)
The last series I remember between these two teams took place at the old Metrodome in Minnesota. It was early June, 2001. I was many Budweisers deep, the Reds were perennial losers and Ken Griffey Jr. was hitting .235 for the year. Well, well, well how the tides have turned my fried cheese curd eating brethren. I expect this to be the series that truly fires up the ‘Fire Ron Gardenhire’ campaign once and for all. As for the Reds; get healthy assholes. That little stunt you pulled in Cleveland caused me to catch a lot of Hell over this. Not to go all Mighty Ducks Coach Jack Reilly on you, but if you don’t win this series no one makes the damn team next year. I’ll cut every one of your sorry asses!

4) Washington Nationals (39-27) at Baltimore Orioles (39-30)
I have a good friend in Rockville, Maryland who fills me in on the area’s rooting interests. These two fan-bases absolutely HATE one another. I don’t know why but every conversation between a Nats fan and an Orioles fan ends up not being a political debate but an argument over whether or not Billy Ripken could beat Ryan Zimmerman’s ass. Both of these teams are pretty good right now. Here’s to a weekend of Mike Morse and Matt Wieters destroying fastballs.

5) Toronto Blue Jays (35-34) at Miami Marlins (33-35)
Miami will be busy buying up all the Heat championship gear their Mastercards can buy, and only about 8,000 of them will turn out to the park each night. But how many series feature two light-tower power stars like Joey Bats and Giancarlo Stanton? Also, could two groups of individuals be any different than South Beachers and Canadians? What do theses people even discuss if forced to sit next to one another on a cross-country flight? My guess is there would be a lot of fighting over the arm rest and some not so accidental spilling of the tomato juice on someone’s lap.

Pitching Match-ups to DVR

Friday:
Jordan Zimmerman vs. Jason Hammel
Tim Lincecum vs. Jarrod Parker (changing of the guard?)
Zach Greinke vs. Chris Sale

Saturday:
Not much to speak of. Should be a homer-heavy Saturday!

Sunday:
C.C. Sabathia vs. R.A. Dickey
David Price vs. Cole Hamels

Video of the Week:

Here’s some poor romantic’s last look at old Tiger Stadium. I am mad that I never got there, but this footage is so good you almost can smell the burning barrels of Motown as you feel the nip off the great lakes. I keep trying to get my buddy to go up to Comerica Park some Saturday so I can cross it off the list. His wife acts like we are trying to schedule a week long trip of sin to Vegas and won’t sign his permission slip. Unbelievable.

I just want to go up to Detroit, see a damn Tigers game and lose some money at the Blackjack tables. Is that too much for a boring, middling-aged man to ask a friend’s wife for? Because if it is I’ll withdraw my request and forget that Detroit even exists. Except during fantasy football season, because Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson really wreck shit on Sundays.

Just watch the video, it’s really cool.