As I write this, the Orioles are about to take the field for the first time in 2007, and, for the first time in almost 30 years, they will be opening away from Baltimore. Actually I didn't know that it had been almost 30 years until I read this Baltimore Sun article, but when I heard that they were opening on the road I thought, "I don't remember the last time they opened on the road," I guess that's because they haven't in my lifetime. The MLB can tell us that it's because the Nationals are in town and they are trying to make it so that one team in the area has an opening day at home while the other opens on the road, but this just doesn't make sense. In the National's inaugural year, both the Nationals and the O's began the season at home. My theory, its just the fact that the O's are stinking it up, and the MLB is trying to get the best teams to start out at home, with the exception of the Royals (which confuses me, but I guess they have to start at home everyone once and a while), all the teams with home games the first day are the winners (Detroit, NY Yanks, Philly, Houston). I know the Nat's stunk it up last year, but I think the MLB is sticking it to Peter Angelos and the O's for fighting the whole Nat's thing.
It actually makes sense this way (am I agreeing with the MLB, well no, cause this is not a definitive rule, but I am saying that they should make it into one), if a team does well the previous season they deserve to start the season at home, it should be a part of the privilege of performing we...start out at home. Basically, the O's have played themselves into opening on the road, if they continue to stink then start them out on a long road trip, make them earn their way back to a home opening day. It definitely kills an opening day tradition, but it also gives a team one other small motivation to continue to fight all season long. By the way O's fans, next year the Nat's are opening up their new stadium, so there is a 0% chance the O's will open at home next year.
It actually makes sense this way (am I agreeing with the MLB, well no, cause this is not a definitive rule, but I am saying that they should make it into one), if a team does well the previous season they deserve to start the season at home, it should be a part of the privilege of performing we...start out at home. Basically, the O's have played themselves into opening on the road, if they continue to stink then start them out on a long road trip, make them earn their way back to a home opening day. It definitely kills an opening day tradition, but it also gives a team one other small motivation to continue to fight all season long. By the way O's fans, next year the Nat's are opening up their new stadium, so there is a 0% chance the O's will open at home next year.
Coming off the heals of a pretty nice NCAA tournament, just to review, went 4 for 4 on the final four and 1 for 2 on the finals (had Georgetown advancing, just trying to give them some Big East love), I guess you would love for me to give my predictions. Well, baseball is not my thing, and I really hate predicting who is going to win it all, but I will keep it local with the O's. They absolutely can't be worse then last year, unless afflicted by major injuries, their young players should be improved over last year, Peter Gammons has them in 3rd place in the AL East, whoa nelly, I'm not that bold, ESPN.com has them at 4th place in the AL East ending at 75-87, pretty safe prediction (last 3 season results: 2006: 70-92, 2005: 74-88, 2004: 78-84). I think the 9 season streak of having a losing season ends...next year, yes I don't think they will be quite there yet, but close. I am close to ESPN, but I think they will be right on the cusp of a winning season, finishing 4th in the AL East with a record of 80-82. This opening 6 game road trip against Minnesota, and NY Yanks, then a 3 game home opening against Detroit is going to haunt them come the end of the season, so they won't be able to make it over the hump quite yet. Nonetheless, O's prove me wrong, and earn that home opener.
IN: Popcorn, Orville Redenbacher would be proud to see his true baby coming back to life. People are putting down the chips and pretzels and starting to pop up the every fun and tasty popcorn. But this time its not just butter they are putting on their popped corn, toppings include cheese, old bay, jalapenos and sugar(kettle corn of course has grown in popularity outside of sketchy carnivals over the past couple of years). People also think popcorn is more healthy, but add butter flavoring, salt, sugar, and cheese and you basically have the equivalent to a chip. But congrats to popcorn for making it back to the limelight.
OUT: High executive pay - now I can write a whole diatribe on this one, but its a fact that executives of most large publicly traded companies make anywhere from 50-200 times the average workers salary, and that is simply insane. As you know I am for a free market, but sometimes you just have to pull in the reigns of a free market gone wild. There is no true justification for giving the executives this much in compensation, should they be compensated like superstars, absolutely, but some of these executives led company's with mediocre(if any) earnings and still get a grand payday (see Home Depot). Being a CEO and CFO is a privilege and they should get paid a lot for that privilege, but this should not be at the expense of the Company or its shareholders, in fact they do need to be held more accountable for the actions of the Company if the Company is under performing yet they are still taking massive checks to the bank. Just a thought that I will get into more later.
No comments:
Post a Comment