On the Eve of Opening Day

There's been a lot of personality recognition lately around Major League Baseball. Scott Patterson seems like an all-around good guy, he pitched his heart out in spring training, he had one outing where he gave up a run, he did everything he had to do, and he will start in the minor leagues anyway. The guy was considerably broken up about the situation and of all the people to console him, who comes to Patterson's aide? That's right, one of my fast-rising favorites, LaTroy Hawkins. The guy hasn't played a game in pinstripes and he's already accommodating players he may never be on the same team with. Hawkins offered to pay for anything Patterson wanted on his hotel tab and was the first to speak to him after hearing the 28-year-old would not be coming to the Bronx. I sincerely hope LaTroy's sinker can stay low and he will solve the seventh inning reliever problem, if for nothing else than the man seems genuinely nice and like a great teammate.

Today Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk-off home run to lead the Nationals over the Braves on Opening Day for Nationals Park. If I had to build a team on personality alone, Zimmerman would be my starting third baseman. For whatever reason, seeing him come up big with two outs in the ninth against Atlanta made up for my one year of anger for hitting a walk-off on Chien-Ming Wang in interleague play last year.

A few other observations:

• This opening series is an automatic red flag to me. I'm not saying the Blue Jays have better pitching than the Yankees because when all is said and done I don't think they do, nor do I think they will stay healthy, but the pitching matchups are certainly not favorite to New York. Halladay vs. Wang should be tight, but Halladay seems to own the Yankees and you can't say the same the other way around. Burnett, when he is healthy, has always dominated New York and Mike Mussina is coming off of an awful spring, a mediocre post-season and a downright career-stopping September. Though I think like Schilling and Pedro before him, Mussina will be able to reinvent himself with an off-season of preparation (the man is a Stanford grad and pitching "professor") as a serviceable back of the rotation starter, I can't take him over Burnett this early in the season. The final game features Hughes and McGowan, two young pitchers with high upside, I'll take Hughes in that matchup, but again, it could go either way.
• How funny was the ending to spring training for the Yankees? They are playing in a football stadium against the Marlins, A-Rod is making his return to South Florida and phenom Andrew Miller is starting for Florida. So what happens? A-Rod homers, Miller pitches very well and the game is decided in the ninth inning when the Yankees fourth string catcher (Cervelli would be third) hits an inside-the-park ninth inning, three-run home run off of real-life starter Kevin Gregg. Yankees win 4-2 because a catcher hit a home run that didn't go over the fence. Wow.
• Reggie Jackson will throw out the season's first pitch. No Yogi? No Ford? No George Streinbrenner? I guess I'm OK with Reggie as he had one of the top 10 moments of all time in the stadium, but still, I feel a little robbed.
• Morgan Ensberg is number 11. The ghost of Paul O'Neill's playing days can live another year.
• How many times will Michael Kay allude to Wang's stardom in Taiwan tomorrow? My guess is three separate occasions.
• Pay attention to any close calls at home plate. Larry Bowa's replacement is under a microscope for poor third base coaching in spring training.
• Frank Thomas will homer in one of the first two games of the season.
• Melky Cabrera will have double digit homers-I'm now positive of that.
• A-Rod will homer tomorrow. I have predicted it the last two years and I'm going for the trifecta.

Enjoy the real start to the regular season. It's going to be a long ride here on Sox and Pinstripes.