Happy sounds

The crack of the bat. The cheer (or occasional groan) of the crowd. The call of the ump.

These are all sounds of happiness for me, and I can hear them right now.

I’m listening to the Rangers/Angels game on Gameday Audio, and I’m not sure life could be much more blissful. Unless, of course, I was listening to the game at home (instead of in the office of my part-time job) in my pajamas with something good to eat or drink. Of course, I would also prefer to be hearing Eric Nadel and Victor Rojas calling the game instead of an Angels’ broadcaster. But I will take what I can get. Any baseball is good baseball after the long, long winter I’ve had.

It’s just good to hear baseball talk again. Talk that isn’t centered on what trades have been made (or not made) or Roger Clemens.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

– My excitement about Josh Hamilton grows each day. I’ve been reading about him and what he could possibly do for months. Yesterday and today, he got to add to that with his performance at the plate. Yesterday, he doubled in a run. Today (so far), he drove in a run on a triple in the first inning and scored later that same inning. He’s creating a lot of buzz in spring training, and, thankfully, not all of that buzz is about his past substance abuse. While his past is certainly interesting, I think the future is going to be much more interesting.

– It’s hard for me to judge pitchers on two innings or so of work. But…I liked what I read about Luis Mendoza yesterday, and Kason Gabbard seemed to do pretty well today. A.J. Murray and Eric Hurley struggled a bit in their outings, but, again, it’s two innings. Not easy to get a read. At least not for me. But I’m still new to all this, remember?

– I’ve read and heard a lot about the controversy surrounding C.J. Wilson and the comments he made about politics and baseball players. Apparently, he’s in a bit of hot water with his teammates because of these comments. I’m not going to side with anyone in this debacle (because that’s not my place, and I’m certain I don’t know the whole story), but I will say I hope they work it out soon. I’ve always seen this team as a very cohesive unit and it would be a shame for that to be ruined by one paragraph in a magazine and a few internet comments.

4 comments

  2. lonestar90@gmail.com

    Eric Hurley did struggle a little bit today – that debut could have gone better. But hopefully, he learned something.

    AJ Murray though – as far as I know, the Pirate was brilliant yesterday, firing two hitless innings. He did walk two, but from what I’ve heard, he did very well.

    As for the CJ Wilson thing – I might have a little insight on that for you, as I do some blogging on Lonestar Ball, and I was actually part of the discussion where he made some of his comments:

    CJ made some sweeping generalizations about baseball players (like that they’ve politically ignorant, too insulated from the real world, and like to drive Hummers) that, while they might be true in some cases like A-Rod or Barry Bonds, where kind of unfair. He seemed to forget, his fellow teammates are ballplayers too – and it did cause some unrest in the clubhouse, I’m sure. But Michael Young and the veteran members of the clubhouse handled things – I was actually glad to see Young stepping up to the plate on this. It seems to finally be blowing over, so hopefully things in the clubhouse are back to normal, and CJ’s learned a lesson: think before you speak. There’s nothing wrong with being outspoken – I still like the fact that he has opinions, but there’s certain opinions that are better kept in-house – maybe the next time CJ feels that way, he’ll talk to his teammates about it, instead of giving inteviews to ESPN about it.

    Anyway, that’s just my take – it’s pretty much blown over now, so it really doesn’t matter.

    I’m just happy to have baseball back – with a tie today agains the Angels, we’re undeafeated so far. Hopefully Jarrod Saltalamcchia will crank things up – he had a rough game today, going 0-2 with a strikeout and a passed ball – and hopefully Ron Washington will actually put Jason Botts and Nelson Cruz in the lineup tomorrow.

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  3. EMC

    I’m glad baseball’s back too and we can start talking about what goes on between the lines on the field – that’s what is really important!

    My very biased prediction: Josh Hamilton will be the Rangers MVP this season, and AJ Murray will be the biggest surprise and claim a spot in the rotation.

    http://emc.mlblogs.com

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