Big Baseball Weekend In The Northeast

If you live in CT (as I do) you're either a Yankees fan, a Mets fan or you belong to Red Sox Nation. Whatever your affiliation, this weekend features at least one of two series that you will care about.

In the National League it's the NY Mets hosting the Hotlanta Bravos. The Mets hold a .5 game lead in the standings and it's April. The result won't exactly decide the division but each team desperately wants to make a statement.

Notwithstanding the assertion by Philadelphia's Jimmy Rollins that the Phillies were the team to beat in the NL East (How's the view from the basement Jimmy?) the real match-up all season will be the Mets and the Braves.

Now let me get this off my chest: I hate the Braves with the white-hot intensity of a thousand burning suns. As a Mets fan, how can I not? But I do respect this team. I respect the talent they have and I respect what they've been able to accomplish since slotting into the NL East in 1994 - 11 straight division titles. But most of all I respect their manager, Bobby Cox.

Bobby Cox with Mets Mgr Willie Randolph

Cox has been the driving force behind Atlanta's winning ways. The Mets managers of the past have been lacking the kind of leadership skills that Cox has. And then came Willie Randolph. Sure, the Mets have better players now. And they managed to end that division championship streak for Atlanta last year pretty handily. But Willie has brought to the Mets a winning attitude and a focus that this team hasn't had in a long time. Cox may just have met his match.

But the Braves aren't going quietly. They will fight back for this division as hard as they can and with everything they've got. Which is going to make this season a nail-biter for the fans of both teams.

****************************

The American League match-up is as old as MLB - Yankees at Boston. Whoo-boy-howdy, this will be something. The Sawx were in the driver's seat at the end of last season and their hated rivals went up to their house and squashed them, pole-vaulting themselves into the lead and eventually to the division title. Damn, that's gotta hurt. And it pushed Boston's 2004 ALCS comeback beating of the Yanks farther back into this history books.

Boston's pitching is running on all cylinders right now. But so is the Yankees' line-up. New York is not playing overall as well as expected and their pitching corps is seriously hurting. But the Yankees are like a wounded animal. And an animal is never more dangerous that when it's wounded.

Now I don't have a dog in this hunt. I don't particularly care for the Yankees but I have no special love for the Sawx, either. For me, this is like watching a street fight and caring more about the fight itself than who ultimately wins. But if I have to pick a team to root for it would be the home team. I don't have a problem with the Yankees so much as I have a problem with their fans, who have this annoying sense of entitlement and an arrogant belief that baseball was invented in the Bronx.

I'm much more interested in seeing the Yankee fans at work with long faces come Monday.

Either way, though. This weekend is a CT baseball fan's dream.

Yips! from Robbo: Gary, one of the things we never really sorted out when you came aboard, and indeed the only flaw I can see in an otherwise beeuootiful relationship, is this Mets fandome of yours. I simply loathe New York baseball in all of its manifestations. Of course the Nats aren't likely to become contenders for another couple years, so we won't have to face that crisis anytime soon, but eventually it's going to come down to it. Still, Steve-O and I have managed to get along despite our Pats/Fins split, so I'm sure we can work it out. It won't be easy, but we'll manage.

As for the festivities at Fenway this weekend: Go, Sawx! I don't call myself a fan out of respect for the Real Deals like Steve-O, but instead a strong sympathizer. Unfortunately, the Missus - who was born on Lawn Guyland - is and always has been a Yankees fan. She's also managed to poison the gels behind my back. I'm hoping that by Monday morning I can taunt her mercilessly.