Almost Spring 2009

I want to apologize for sucking at communicating these last few weeks. I have not intentionally neglected anyone but I know I have ignored some friends. Work has been sending me around the Midwest and not giving me much downtime when I am in the office. But I am getting back on the email bandwagon today and am starting to catchup. Maybe it is time to reconsider my denial of Twitter since I have turned into a bad blogger and email is becoming old-fashioned (I know that sounds weird. Stupid Web 2.0).

I have done a few touristy things in the city and had some boring travels around Indiana as of late. I have posted some pictures to my Picasa site and a couple of videos on YouTube. I took my favorite ones at the zoo; I really like that nasty bird eating a bloody rat. But lately I have been spending most of my free time rehearsing for the musical. I am in the cast of The Wedding Singer (Yes, it is based off the movie with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore) that opens up next month. It has been a great experience and I think it will be even a better show. It has a really funny script that some very talented people are turning into a performance that all 80s fanatics will love. If you can make it to the far northwest side of the city you should go to the Rising Stars Theatre Company website so you can find out about tickets. I am going to stop with the links because this is starting to look like a wikipedia article. Oops.

As always, one of the best parts about this time of year is the return of baseball! I have been following the Spring Training updates as much as I can and I am very excited for Opening Day. I will be at Comiskey for it on April 6th and hopefully I'll see Obama throw out the first pitch. Instead of organizing my predictions for the season, I'll just ramble below on my thoughts for what will happen this coming year. If you do not know what Bobby Cox, Joe Torre and Jim Leyland have in common, you are not a baseball fan and should probably stop reading this post right about now.


AL East: The Yankees dynasty is over and they will be mediocre again this year. The Red Sox have the best starting rotation in baseball and they will win the division. They Devil Rays (Yes, I am going to keep calling them that) are for real and will have a very good season. The Blue Jays should be better than last year too and will win my award of the best team in baseball not to make the playoffs. This is a power division and should be fun to watch.

AL Central: Kansas City will be better than usual but that is not saying much. I called Getz winning the second base job for the White Sox. Their lack of a real centerfielder, no good OBP guys for leading off, and worst of all, big defensive holes, scare me. Still, this is one of the weakest divisions in baseball and with Colon and Contreras being ready for opening day, they have the pitching to take the title again. They will go deeper into the playoffs but not by much. The Twins will also not be far behind again, the Indians will be inconsistent and the Tigers will suck while the manager gets sacked.

AL West:

Seattle is going to surprise people. Ichiro will be devastating in full form and Griffey will play all season at a high level. This is the comeback team of 09. The A's are going to be horrible and Billy Beane is going to lose some respect. LA and Texas will be between good and mediocre and fall in the middle.

NL East:

The Phillies and Mets will fight it out and go back and forth in the standings all season long. The Phillies hitters will be great, the Mets pitchers are some of the best and they will leave the rest of the division in the dust.

NL Central:

I admit it, the Cubs have the best starters in the NL. Their bullpen is scary and so is their defense. They will have a great record and choke in the playoffs for the third year in a row. The Reds are going to rebound a bit and compete with the Cardinals for second-place. The rest of the division is pretty bad because they don't have the pitching. Sorry Brewers, maybe the bashers like Braun and Fielder will both be marquee players and prove me wrong.

NL West:

The Dodgers have great pitching but will lose a lot of games 2-3 and 1-2. The Rockies will take it as they have a great mix of old and young players on their team. Overall this is still the weakest division in baseball.