Opening day at last!
The 2006 baseball season starts this weekend. One thing that I can predict with a high degree of certainty is that, sadly, my old hometown team the Detroit Tigers will continue to suck, getting deeper into their second decade of futility as measured by sub-.500 records. In contrast, my other favorite team, the Cleveland Indians (which I came to root for during the eight years I lived in Cleveland), look strong. Given that they gave the Chicago White Sox a scare in the last couple of months of the season, almost catching them from a huge deficit before falling just short of making the playoffs, they’ll be hungrier than ever this year. This is a team that looks a lot like 1994 Indians, on the cusp of something great. Too bad they couldn’t quite close the deal by winning the World Series in 1995 or 1997. The 1997 loss was particularly painful, given that they came within one out of eliminating 49 years of futility, and have since added nine more years.
One thing that’s for sure, is that the dreaded New York Yankees will be in contention. I was extremely happy to see them fall short last year, but this is a new year. Unfortunately, I happen to live within the area covered by New York City media, and there are a lot of Yankees fans around here. After all, as any baseball fan will tell you, anyone who grew up in an American League city east of the Mississippi other than New York almost certainly hates the Yankees (not to mention quite a few of those who grew up west of the Mississippi as well). Fortunately, I’ve found something that very weill might annoy the heck out of them:
A couple of really cool T shirts!
Perhaps I’ll order one of them, or even both. I wouldn’t be foolish enough to venture into the Bronx wearing one of these shirts, but around where I live, the worst they’ll provoke would be nasty comments or a bit of a chuckle.
I’m sure they’re probably big sellers in Boston.
