The Evil Empire Begins Their Chase For Championship Number 28 Today. It's Opening Day Baby!
It was a long, looooooooong winter. So long that I tried dating, which ended being a poor decision on my end. We’ll try that again in 5 years. The night of October 21st, 2017 was a dark, dark time in my world, which solely revolves around the New York Yankees. I was at the Ainsworth at the Game 7 watch party as the knife slowly slipped into my stomach like I was in the movie The Strangers.
Short of a 5th inning Greg Bird one out double, the Yankees really never threatened to score as Charlie Morton and Lance McCullers shutdown this potent lineup. The magic ran out on an amazing postseason run and I sat at the end of the bar alone staring blankly into the TVs. The Astros celebrated a well deserved trip to the World Series and I watched every minute of it because I hate myself. Carrabis and his Boston minions flooded the bar to drink my tears in a well-timed terrorist attack on my heart. I’m not even sure I said a word to any of them as my soul slipped away into slumber, only to return today March 29th as the baseball world restarts their collective engines. Today we begin.
Today begins the most exciting season of my entire sports fandom career. You could argue 2009 is right up there as the new Yankee Stadium opened up along with incoming free agent reinforcements like CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Mark Teixeira donning pinstripes for the first time. This year is different. This feels like the beginning of what was the late 90’s for those that were alive and conscious for it (I was only a little kid and don’t remember any of it sadly). A Yankees dynasty coming to fruition. They return the young stars that have changed the culture of this team in Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino and Didi Gregorius. They return the feisty veterans, Brett Gardner, CC Sabathia, who want one more championship before it’s all said and done. There are the recent newcomers who have yet to taste what a World Series feels like: Sonny Gray, Brandon Drury, Aaron Hicks, Neil Walker. And then there’s him. The one man wrecking ball who has the ability to destroy the American League East with his incredible offensive firepower. A man that has been trapped in misery in South Beach for years, just begging for a chance to play in meaningful baseball games. That would be Giancarlo Stanton. Yes, he’s a New York Yankee and he’s angry.
The Yankees are the bad guys once again, hated by all different shapes and sizes of fanbases. Baseball feels right when they are the true evil empire. For the first time in quite a while, the Yankees and Red Sox both entire the season as legitimate World Series contenders. I’m not here to say the rivalry is back just yet because I need some bad blood for that to be officially true. I need a mini brawl early in the year just like in the mid-2000s. But yes, the AL East division race is going to awesome from start to finish and that’s what makes this season so fucking exciting.
So today at 3:37 PM J.A. Happ will take the ball against New York in Toronto. Awaiting him in the top of the first will be Brett Gardner and I pray for Mr. Happ he retires the scrappy lefty, because following the left fielder will be Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Gary Sanchez.
Murderers’ Row 2.0. Let’s have some fun.
Brand new Opening Day episode of The Short Porch is live to take you right into first pitch. Make sure to listen