First Pitches

Since writing intros seems to be the thing to do on here, I'll add one of my own.

For much of the past year, I had the undeserved luxury of living with the founders of this blog (306 shall live on), and it is because of them that I have been given the opportunity to contribute here. I will be trying to add my thoughts at least once a week, though my incredibly horrible internet connection in my apartment in Rochester might impede my efforts until I move back to my parent's house in mid-August.

However, if you're reading this, you probably care less about my struggles with public wireless access than you do about sports, so here's what you can probably expect from me:

I generally stay in-season when it comes to sports, so for the time being I'm all about baseball (helped by the fact that it's also my favorite), and contrary to what many will tell you - football season DOES NOT begin until the week after Labor Day. Preseason games are basically a waste of time and money, and don't even get me started on the excessive coverage that training camps get.

After baseball, my other major interests fall in the following order: NCAA Basketball, Pro Football, and Soccer. The NBA does occasionally gets me interested (like during last year's play-offs, which were the best in a long time), and honestly the NHL would be a lot higher on my radar if I could ever actually find a game on the television. However, I'm not one of the lucky 0.005% of people in this country who get Versus, so I've just kind of tuned out the NHL.

Besides, with baseball, football, and college basketball, you have a full year of all the good sports and none of the occasionally crappy ones. Baseball and football overlap nicely, as do football and college basketball. The NCAA title game is usually within a week of opening day, so that's just about perfect too.

Soccer, in one form or another, runs pretty much year-round, so you'll be getting some of that too. MLS is only mildly enjoyable, but with the U.S. gearing up for the World Cup next summer, I'll try to bring some perspective on the final 5 qualifying games that are scheduled from September through November.

Of course, being a Philly fan will color my opinions on certain things, but I promise to do my best to keep things objective (and occasionally objectivist - just because Ayn Rand is awesome).

So without going into too much detail, I'll gather my crystal ball and glass of water to give you some of the headlines you'll see between now and the end of the baseball season:

- Phils cruise to 3rd consecutive NL East title.

- Pujols goes 4-for-4 on season's final day to win batting title, triple crown, and division.

- Cubs Fall Short: finish one game back of Cards.

- Role Reversal; Yanks enter ALCS as underdogs to Red Sox. (god save us from ESPN's over-hype that will result, but it's gonna happen)

- Phillies, Dodgers re-match in NLCS.

- World Series Game 6 to be played for the first time since 2003. (but I'm not telling who wins)

And finally, just because everyone on here seems to be ragging on curling, I feel like I have to defend it. It's actually a lot more fun than it seems, and even if it isn't the most exciting spectator sport, watching the last few ends of a world-class match is pretty enjoyable. This past year, the world championship match between Scotland and Canada came down to the last end, where Scotland scored three points over the last two ends to come from behind and win.