NFL
By Jason Gulden
Across North America this week, players will be headed to the ballpark to start the journey of 162 Major League Baseball games. When they get into the ballpark, they will smell the nice green grass, hot dogs, cracker jacks, and peanuts. They will see all the bunting hanging around the stadium.
They will see championship banners hanging, the American Flag, and the Canadian Flag hanging from the flagpole.
The journey for most players started when they were just little kids playing on Little League fields in their hometowns around the world. Only a handful of all those little leaguers get to experience the joy of making it to the major leagues. Some of the players that show up will be on a Major League Roster for the very first time. For others, it’s just another day at the park.
For us baseball fans, it’s the start of a brand-new season, where we get the hope of having an amazing season. Yes, a month ago, following the Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, teams showed up in Arizona or Florida for spring training. Started with about 70 players in camp, but on this day, the rosters are trimmed all the way down to 26 players.
Teams left camp on Tuesday for their season openers. Half of the teams will travel to a city and stay for only a few days before moving on to their next destination. Some teams will return to their home cities, where they will play at least 81 games this season.
All 30 teams have one goal in mind. To be the last team standing come the end of October or early November. Some of those teams have a realistic chance of making that happen. Meanwhile, others are just hoping not to set the record for losses in a season.
Major League Baseball starts tonight when the New York Yankees travel to San Francisco to take on the Giants. On Thursday, 22 teams start their season. On Friday, the remaining 6 teams start their season.
Not only will we see our favorite teams play, but the pitching matchups are top-notch. We get both teams’ #1 starter on opening day. Check out some of these matchups we get
On Wednesday, we get Max Fried of the Yankees and Logan Webb of the Giants.
Thursday, we get 12 games with these starters
- Reigning NL Cy Young winner, Paul Skenes, of Pittsburgh, is taking on Freddy Peralta, who will be making his New York Mets debut
- Shane Smith will get the season going for the Chicago White Sox when they take on Jacob Misiorowski of the Milwaukee Brewers
- Cade Cavalli of the Washington Nationals travels to Chicago to take on the Chicago Cubs and Matthew Boyd
- Joe Ryan of the Minnesota Twins takes on Trevor Rogers of the Baltimore Orioles
- Jose Soriano of the Los Angeles Angels takes on Hunter Brown of the Houston Astros
- Garrett Crochet of the Boston Red Sox takes on Andrew Abbott of the Cincinnati Reds
- Reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers takes on Nick Pivetta of the San Diego Padres
- Texas Rangers will send Nathan Eovaldi to the mound against the Philadelphia Phillies and Christopher Sanchez
- Drew Rasmussen of the Tampa Bay Rays faces off against Matthew Libertore of the St. Louis Cardinals
- Arizona Diamondbacks will send Zac Gallen to the mound to get the first crack at the reigning World Series Champs, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who will be raising their championship banner before they send Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the mound
- The last matchup of the day will feature Tanner Bibee of the Cleveland Guardians when they take on the Seattle Mariners and Logan Gilbert.
Friday, the other 6 teams start their season.
- The Athletics begin their second season in Sacramento when they travel to face off with the reigning AL Champs, the Toronto Blue Jays. That pitching matchup will feature Luis Severino of the Athletics and Kevin Gausman of the Toronto Blue Jays.
- Colorado Rockies travel to Miami to take on the Marlins. In that matchup, it will feature Kyle Freeland for the Colorado Rockies and Sandy Alcantara for the Miami Marlins
- The final game featuring teams playing their first game is the Kansas City Royals, who will send Cole Ragans to the mound against the Atlanta Braves and Chris Sale.
As you can see, these are some exciting matchups taking place to start the season.
Who will be the surprise teams this season? What player has a standout season to lead their team to the promised land?
Those are hard questions to answer, but I do know one thing. Baseball season starts Wednesday night and will end in late October or early November. Talk to you all soon for my take on the Major League Baseball season.
