Now It's Officially Spring--Opening Day

Wait 'till next year...

SealPoet, That's the spirit. Why wait until the end of the season to invoke "Wait till next year." Start early. Avoid the rush.

Red Sox country. I start saying that before Spring Training...

We anticipate a 2004 World Series staring the Chicago Cubs and NY Yankees!!

Them Yankees . . . when i was just a wee Setanta, i decided i was a Giants fan. I figured any team who could come with nine giants to play baseball for them was way cool. Basically, i just liked the name. I was not discouraged to learn that they were ordinary size ballplayers, either. My grandfather was a die-hard Yankees fan, and considered it sacrilige that any kid from the Bronx would not feel the same. I think what wounded him most was that i rooted for the hated rivals from the Polo Grounds. The only thing worse would have been to be a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. I'm still a Giants fan, but the feeling lost a good deal of its intensity when they moved to San Francisco. That idiot park, Candlestick, in my never humble opinion, cost Willy Mays what had been a good shot at Ruth's HR record. Oh well, water under the bridge . . .

Have a good season, Miss Raboida, and i hope the Bronx Bombers don't disappoint you . . .

Setanta, My father was a Giants fan. I think he was appalled that I liked the Yankees. The only game we went to together was when the Giants played the Mets. Yes, we schlepped out to Queens from da Bronx. I wanted to see Willie Mays in person. He wanted to see his Giants.

I don't feel confident this year. (I say that every year.) I'm worried about the lack of left-handed pitching in the starting rotation. In fact I'm worried about the pitching in general. I'm still pissed at George for letting Andy Pettit get away.

We'll see.

Roberta, when you said your parents knew you were cutting school to go to opening day, it reminded me of something that happened to me. When I was a senior in high school, some friends and I cut school to go to opening day at Yankee Stadium. Marianne Moore threw out the first ball (from the stands, not the pitcher's mound); I don't think I had a clue who Marianne Moore was at the time, but I was still pretty impressed that an old lady in a three-cornered hat was throwing out the first ball on opening day.

Anyway, when I went back to school the next day, my mother gave me a note in which she said that I had been absent from school the previous day because -- with her permission -- I had gone to opening day at Yankee Stadium. When I gave the note to my homeroom teacher, he took one look it, blanched, and walked out of the room. He returned a few minutes later and handed me the note, on which the word "Unacceptable" was written in the principal's handwriting. I asked why the reason for my absence was unacceptable to the school, if it had been acceptable to my mother. He muttered something about sickness being the only acceptable excuse for being absent from school. I asked if it would be acceptable if I got my mother to write a note saying I had been absent from school because I had been sick. He said such a note would be acceptable. I said, but you know it wouldn't be true, don't you, because we both know where I really was yesterday? He said it didn't matter if it was true, as long as it was acceptable. I was astounded by his hypocrisy and small-mindedness (and that's saying something, because I was a teenager, and it was the 1960's, so I was already inclined to think of all adults as small-minded hypocrites). But I didn't want to get detention for an unexcused absence, so I got my mother to write a new note, and brought it to school the next day. I got my revenge, though: I wrote up the whole incident in a story that was published in the school newspaper, and to this day I hope my homeroom teacher was embarrassed as hell by it.

P.S. I feel the same way as you about Steinbrenner letting Pettitte go.

Ah, Bree. The hypocrisy of adults. My Brownie troop planned a trip to the Fanny Farmer candy factory. Each member of the troop was taken out of class to make the trip. Each one of us got a note from our mother saying that we were sick. Even though I was a little kid, the irony and hypocrisy were not lost on me. I asked my mother why she was lying. Aren't girl scouts supposed to be honest? Don't remember her answer.

I didn't need a note when I cut school to go to opening day. The cuts were college cuts.

How quickly Bronx Bummers forget a September thrashing. Looks like we'll have to do it all over again. Go Marlins!

Re: Now It's Officially Spring--Opening Day

Puhleeeeeeeze! Just a gentle tease!