Spring Opener!

[redsrbetter]

"There are two seasons; winter and baseball season."

The Reds are having their spring opener today and I may miss a chunk of it. Thankfully the game is on MLB Network and will be DVRd. No doubt, I will have the live feed on in my living room while trying to pay attention to game night with the family.

If there could be a camera on the wall in my house during tonights game, you might see this.

While playing Cranium; my partner is attempting to sculpt his best description of a missionary with a game included piece of clay. My eyes are fixed on the television screen while faking an attempt at guessing what my partner is creating. Eventually the time runs out and my buddy knows I have failed him.

Now, I don't take to losing kindly. Especially when it is against my super competitive wife. Knowing I have to step it up, I remember I have a pause button. So, to make things a bit easier I decide to press the pause button during my round and while the opposing team are on their round, I push play. fast forwarding through the commercials will likely keep me close to real time. I guess its not a bad idea. We'll see how it works tonight.

Ahhh, the joys of juggling family life with a full blown love for the game. Who knows, maybe I will simply take a page out of my favorite baseball movie. Shades of Kevin Costner may be portrayed when I sign a baseball and hand it over to my family and friends. The inscription? I Quit; For Love Of The Game.

Until this parade takes place, I will don a Reds jersey, mourn the departure of Victor Rojas from MLB Network, fill out some paper work, watch twitter updates in search for up to the minute game action, find tonight's lineups, squeeze in a game of MLB 2010: The Show, and perhaps have an ice cold beer...or two.

Let Baseball Begin!

[redsrbetter]

Lineups:

Indians
Asdrubal Cabrera SS
Grady Sizemore CF
Shin-Soo Choo RF
Travis Hafner DH
Jhonny Peralta 3B
Jordan Brown LF Austin Kearns LF
Andy Marte 1B
Luis Valbuena 2B
Lou Marson C

Justin Masterson P

Mighty Redlegs
Drew Stubbs CF
Orlando Cabrera SS
Joey Votto 1B
Brandon Phillips 2B
Scott Rolen 3B
Jay Bruce RF
Jonny Gomes LF
Ramon Hernandez C
Drew Sutton DH

Pitchers:
Mike Lincoln (2 innings)
Matt Maloney (2)
Justin Lehr (2)
Sam LeCure (1)
Carlos Fischer (1)
Jon Adkins (1)

[redsrbetter]

As I just learned that Dusty Baker was a part of the first high five in MLB history; I will do him a service in critiquing his lineup. Will he get a high five from me? We'll see.

I really think this is where he sees his starting lineup opening day. It is pretty easy to predict Dusty's lineup behavior. I am going to try and leave lineup construction alone this year, so getting overly worked up for a spring training game is almost pointless. Yet, I would place a big bet right now that barring injury, this will be the Opening Day lineup.

No high five from me Dusty.

I hope to see Lincoln have an awful outing in hopes that he never gets the chance to keep the insanity of his being a starter alive.

I want to see Jay Bruce have a huge spring and bring that into the regular season. I have higher hopes for him than anyone this year. So I will be looking for a good start from him. Also, the battle between Stubbs and Dickerson is very interesting. Dickerson has come out and said that he shouldn't be in a LF battle, that he is a centerfielder. Dusty rebuked the thought. I guess we will see just how good Dickerson can be. I think he will be giving his all in order to show everyone he deserves it. Willl the numbers show him worthy? Only time will tell.

[redsrbetter]

Well much to my dismay I trusted MLB Netwrok in their scheduling of the game only to find out the 1989 All-Star game to be aired instead of my Reds. I was unbelievably pissed! Come to find out the game must have started much earlier than MLB Network thought. Or else my cable network had it listed wrong.

Anyway, I have yet to see the game. But MLB.tv is still an option. So here goes nothing...

[missionhockey21]

Phillips is 4th, we know this is true. I do agree that this is likely the Opening Day lineup, but for what I expected from Dusty, there isn't anything totally batshit insane that is going to bug me about it. If I had my way, Dickerson would be in leftfield and batting leadoff against righties, and Gomes would bat against lefties down in the order. I am not crazy about sticking Bruce 6th, but he's got to "earn it" and all of that.

I listened to a good portion of the game, obviously the results really do not matter, but it was good to hear Marty again and baseball. I love the MLB At Bat app.

(I saw the same thing you did on MLB Network and someone asked me "That isn't a Reds player, is it?" and I said "No, that's Nolan Ryan, and he isn't even in the right decade.")

[redsrbetter]

haha that would be awesome though, wouldnt it?

Anyhow, the game pretty much sucked as expected. But I had to watch it anyways. Glad to see Lincoln get knocked around. I am simply enjoying watching these young guys try and win a roster spot.