Get ready for baseball
Cubs, excitement reign as a new season begins
It’s opening day for Major League Baseball. Preview what’s in store this season, with special emphasis on the Atlanta Braves and their new stadium
When Chris Archer throws the first pitch of the 2017 Major League Baseball season this afternoon, he also will unleash all sorts of possibilities.
Will home runs stay on the upswing? Can MVP Kris Bryant and the World Series champion Chicago Cubs repeat? Or now that the Cubs have broken baseball’s oldest curse, might another team be ready to end its hex?
The fun starts today with a trio of tilts, beginning when Archer and the Tampa Bay Rays host the New York Yankees at 1:10. A neat matchup between the San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks featuring aces Madison Bumgarner and Zack Greinke is set for 4:10, and the day will be capped by a rivalry special as left-hander Jon Lester and those title-winning Cubs visit rival St. Louis for an 8:35 first pitch.
Other teams get into the act Monday, including the Atlanta Braves visiting the New York Mets at 1:10 to start a three-game series between the NL East foes. Here’s something special beyond the start: On June 10 at Tropicana Field, a rare event these days — Oakland A’s versus Rays in the majors’ first scheduled single-admission doubleheader since 2011.
This year’s All-Star Game is July 11 at Marlins Park in Miami. The last day of the season? That would be Nov. 1, if the Fall Classic again goes to Game 7.
Whether another exciting World Series such as the one the Cubs and Cleveland Indians played in 2016 is in store again is a question that has plenty of time to be answered, but many teams start the season optimistic they could be celebrating when it’s all over. From D.C. to Dodger Stadium, a lot of
loaded teams are lurking, waiting for that elusive world championship.
New Cardinals leadoff man Dexter Fowler, signed in the offseason, has a clue which club might break through.
“I guess Cleveland,” he said. Fowler got a close-up look last fall. He was part of the Cubs squad that ended a 108-year championship drought by denying the Indians their first title since 1948.
But Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve and the Houston Astros seem ready to rocket into October orbit, too. And it’s about time for a team still searching for its first crown.
“I wouldn’t mind taking us off that list,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said.
It has also been a while since the U.S. capital was the baseball capital — 1924, to be exact.
“It would put the Nationals on the map,” said Washington manager Dusty Baker, a baseball man in a football locale. “Rightfully so, this is a Redskins town. They’ve been there a long time. They’ve got a history of success.”
Coming off six straight losing seasons, the Colorado Rockies appear far from contending. Of course, there’s always hope, especially when every team is 0-0.
“That’s the goal for us, is to win the whole thing,” said shortstop Trevor Story, who saw the huge turnaround in Chicago that led to a humongous celebration. “It’s cool, especially for a team like us. We’re not spending crazy amounts of money and stuff like that. We have to draft good. It’ll be sweet once it finally happens and those years in the past will
make the wins just that much more sweet.”
And don’t overlook the Texas Rangers, the Los Angeles Dodgers or the New York Mets, teams that have threatened in recent years.
As for what’s new, the answer is plenty.
Lefty ace Chris Sale got traded from the White Sox to the Red Sox, slugger Edwin Encarnacion joined the Indians and Carlos Beltran signed with Houston. Other top names who wound up in new jerseys included popular and portly pitcher Bartolo Colon (Braves) and NL home run champ Chris Carter (Yankees).
Fenway Park won’t look the same without Big Papi — David Ortiz retired, done at 41 despite hitting .315 with 38 home runs and 127 RBIs a year ago.
Dodger games won’t sound the same without Vin Scully — for decades, from Ebbets Field to Chavez Ravine, fans would tune in from their seats for his dulcet tones. This will be the first Dodgers opener since 1950 without him in the broadcast booth. The 89-year-old legend said he didn’t plan to listen, saying, “I’ll probably have things to do.”
Also gone is Turner Field after just 20 seasons in Atlanta. The Braves open 41,000-seat SunTrust Park in the suburbs on April 14, hoping the city’s notorious traffic snarls don’t cause too much trouble. The next new MLB stadium is set for Texas in 2020.
If you didn’t like the fact that the All-Star Game determined who got home-field advantage in the World Series — did anyone? — well now it doesn’t. Under baseball’s new labor deal, the pennant winner with the best regular-season record will host Game 1.
And some of the game’s heaviest hitters will sometimes be able to leave their lumber in the bat rack under this new rule change: opposing managers can order intentional walks without a single pitch being thrown. And if a team tries to pitch around Mike Trout but falls behind, the skipper can just send him to first base at any time in the count.
There’s always something new in the grand old game.