Here we are, baseball season has arrived. OK, it won’t be here until the second half of the week but it’s here! Hooray. But until then, not much to do this week until the season gets here. Made my weekly stop at Gift Horse on Monday and I also stopped at Collusion as well. Then settled down for a dull week, the last one probably until October.

So here are Kevin’s picks for the year:

Division Winners: Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros. As much as this pains me the WS champ will be the Yankees. I think I need to take a shower now, I feel dirty all over. The Yankees don’t need to win another one. While I don’t have any love for the Brewers I’d rather see them win it. Of course as a Pirates fan I keep having to ask when it will be our turn?

I think the Pirates will win 86 games but in that division that will not get it done. I’m going to say that the Nationals win 85 games and begin a slow descent back to mediocrity. As for the Orioles, it will be hard to be any worse then they were last year but it is do-able. There is not one player on that roster that scares anyone outside of maybe Trey Mancini. I think they will be lucky to win 60 games and may not even come close to that. It is going to be a long 3 or 4 years in Birdland. The only question I have is is Brandon Hyde a patsy brought in to absorb the losses or is he going to get a chance to manage when the team starts to get better and the job becomes a little more exciting?

Listened to the Orioles opening game in New York. It’s going to be a long year. They ended the first inning with a runner being hit by a batted ball (don’t know if I’ve ever seen that in person?) and then gave up a 3-run bomb in the bottom of the inning. Poor Brandon Hyde is going to look 10 years older then he is now by the end of the season.

Saturday was Game #1, Atlanta at Philadelphia. Today was gorgeous. 70 degrees and sunny, perfect baseball weather, especially for the end of March. I can’t complain and plenty of other people had the same idea. The game was sold out (bought tickets ahead of time for this). I’m guessing the phans wanted to see their new star acquisition. Hope they are not disappointed. Hit a few breweries on the way to the game since it was a 4:05 start. Hit Victory and East Branch in Downingtown and Levante in West Chester.

Bryse Wilson started for the Braves against Nick Pivetta for the Phils. The Braves struck first plating 3 before the Phils could get on the board. For the record the first hit of the year was Braves’ leadoff man Ender Inciarte who knocked a triple. Would have given long odds that the first hit of the year was a triple. With the Braves up 3-0 the Phils woke up. J.T. Realmuto got his first hit as a Phillie knocking in a run and then Maikel Franco knocked a 2-run shot off of the foul pole. Realmuto hit the big bomb the next inning about 10 rows in front of me. The guy caught the ball bare handed, nice! He got it put in a case by the team and was given a certificate. That put the Phils up for good and the bullpen didn’t cough up anything until David Robertson gave up a 2-run shot in the 9th but he nailed down the last outs. Philadelphia wins 8-6. It’s nice to have baseball back.

On Sunday I was going to go down to DC to take in the Nationals and Mets but the YAIAA All Star basketball games were scheduled for today so I decided to go to that. It didn’t seem like there would be an all star game but someone put it together. I’ll see plenty of the Nationals later and I’ll get the Mets in too. The powers that be changed the format for the boys games with creating a York vs. Lancaster game with 2 games between players from smaller schools and larger schools. It was a nice day, overcast but a bit chilly but with the car going in for service on Monday I decided just to stick around town.

In the smaller school game York won easily, in the larger game Lancaster won easily. Both games went well over 100 points, in the large school game Lancaster scored about 150 points. They were playing 4 10 minute quarters so they was a whole extra period in there. Lots of dunks, lots of 3’s, very little defense. Typical all star game.

On the docket for next week

April 4 – New York at Baltimore for Opening Day
April 5- Bowie at Harrisburg
April 6 – Winston-Salem at Frederick
April 6 – Bowie at Harrisburg
April 7 – New York at Baltimore

Site Update: The Beer Bottle Collection has been updated with some new bottles. Up to 3,201.