MLB Opening day

Long time no blogging, not really any specific topics I've been interested in writing but that is about to change. We are on the eve of Major League Baseball's opening day, this is a national (well international since I'm in Mexico) holiday for us baseball fans.

It's hard to explain why baseball is so great. I have a lot of friends who just despise baseball and I could rant all day on many of the beautiful aspects of the game they don't get but we I'll leave that for another day. I've some topics I'd like to touch on. We've got expectations for this season, playoff picks, MLB.tv and other random stuff

First off, lets talk about expectations for this season. 

• I expect tons of hitting, more so than last season. Temperatures will be hot so that definitely helps the ball travel, pitching won't be so dominating and some teams just have a brutal lineup that makes any pitcher cringe when looking at the box score.


• All "expert" analysis goes out the window after the first pitch tomorrow. Baseball is so full of surprise performances (José Bautista and 40+ HRs anyone?), injuries always come into play, off field issues also have a huge part on on-field performances. At the end of the day usually the teams with the most talent come out on top, that is until we get a team red hot at the right time of year... looking at you San Francisco Giants.


• Looking for the Atlanta Braves to have a huge season. They've got the talent, lets see how the new manager holds it all together.


• I expect huge things from John Lester of the Boston Red Sox.


• Adrian Gonzalez will have a monster season and get the publicity, money and success he deserves. As a Padre fan I was sad to see him go. but at the same time excited as he deserves to take his talents (a LeBron quote for a guy who is as far, class-wise, from #6 as possible) to a huge market. Hope he makes it big, his home will always be in SoCal.


• Jeter will continue to decline in every stat yet the Yankees won't notice that.


• Mets and Dodgers will keep spending money like crazy and get absolutely nothing in return.


• I expect the Giants to run away with the NL West (again, this saddens me as a Padre fan). I think Pablo Sandoval will be great this season. Lincecum could get have another Cy Young season (the kid is still only 26). Hope Wilson is back pretty quick, beard and all.


• St. Louis is a huge question mark. Their pitching is very suspect and with the Pujols' contract stuff we could have an off year for them.


• The NL Central is up for grabs between the Cards, Reds and (wait for it) Cubs...


• I think the Braves will run away in the East, the Phillies won't have the pitching and with Utley out they rely on Mr 200 K Ryan Howard to carry the load.


• Texas will have another great season, will they make it to the WS like in 2010? I doubt it.


• The AL Central is up for grabs.


• For another year no one will show up at Marlins games, and fill up Tropicana only for Yanks and Sox games. Florida is not a place for baseball.

Playoff picks
NL West: SF Giants
NL Central: St Louis Cardinals.
NL East: Atlanta Braves
NL Wildcard: Chicago Cubs

AL West: Texas Rangers
AL Central: Minn. Twins
AL East: Boston Red Sox
AL Wildcard: Tampa Bay Rays

MLB.tv
I'm no spokesperson for any product, but this is a great investment if you are a baseball fan. For 120 bucks you get every game in HD quality in a long list of devices. Really a great thing to get, not much more to say about it but this is my 3rd year buying it and have never been disappointed. 

Random

• I hope we get a great season with lots of surprises to, like every year, prove that this is the most beautiful and unpredictable sport there is.


• Hope my Padres put up a fight and make it fun for us fans. I see them finishing 2nd in the West.


• I'll constantly blog on baseball, there is so much to write about it.


• Hope I can fly out to Boston to watch my Padres in June take on the Red Sox. Wearing my Adrian Gonzalez jersey will make it so much better.


• Side note, I hope the NFL labor dispute gets worked out so we get a full 16 game (stop with the 18 game crap)

As the great Ernesto Jerez would say:
"No se diga más, solo PLAY BALL!"

San Antonio trip, day 3 – LOS ANGELES LAKERS vs San Antonio Spurs

So after a Saturday of walking around and shopping in San Antonio - boy, I love this place- bought a couple of books, some clothes and a kick ass #24 Lakers jersey/tshirt (for you noobs, #24 is future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant). All in all a great day, but Sunday was the reason for this trip.

So early Sunday I catch some SportsCenter to get up date on everything sports, there is a ton of hype for the Lakers-Spurs game. At 12:30 I'm off to the AT&T Center which is about 5 minutes from the hotel and get my 8 dollar parking, pretty far but the cheapest you can get inside the Crappy Cellphone Carrier Center.

I was accustomed to arenas opening their doors about an hour and a half before game time but they make us wait for a while and open just an hour before tip-off. Waiting time was fun as there were a lot of Laker fans and had some great talks with people around me, even got invited to a party in Austin.

So finally I'm in the arena at 1:30 and a huge "Beat LA" chant starts so us Lakers fans start a "Let's go Lakers!" which was a good way to start gameday. It got even better just a minute later as Spurs cheerleaders were out signing autographs. -didn't care for the signing but looking at those hot women was something nice.

I get my butt up to my seat with a nice hot dog and a cold Bud Light. Again lots of LA fans around me which is always nice... you form this quick bond with fans when you are rooting for the visiting team, kinda like a brotherhood during and after the game.

We get lots of cheers during the player introductions. Kobe gets huge cheers and huge boos (nothing like LeBron on Friday who got booed like crazy as people don't like him nor respect him, unlike Kobe who is hated for being on the opposing team, but is respected for the kind of player he is), Manu gets the most cheers for the local team. That was about the last time the crowd was as hot.

Right from the get-go this on was in cruise-control for LA. Well not exactly as SA started out winning 2-0 but the next 11 minutes and 45 seconds was all Lakers who ended leading the 1st Q 34-13 thus opening a 21 point lead. We get more of the same in the 2Q and the LakeShow go up 28 at halftime.

Time for another beer and more of the same as the LA gets the lead up to 30 points and we see lots of bench players for both squads and the Lakers end up winning 99-83.

Final thoughts

• All in all the Lakers played a near-perfect game and San Antonio had an off night, well overdue after 22 straight home wins.


• Kobe had a nice game ending with 26 points leaving him 12 points behind Moses Malone in the all-time points scoring list (27409 to Kobe's 27397).


• A great experience as I had last seen the Lakers live about 12-14 years ago (they still played at the Forum) and I had never seen them as a visitor.


• I think I'm unbeaten when traveling to see a sporting event. SAN DIEGO @ Dallas (NFL), Charlotte @ DALLAS (NBA), Orlando @ SPURS (NBA), Nets @ MAVS, SAN DIEGO @ Houston (NFL), Charlotte @ HOUSTON (NBA), Heat @ SPURS (NBA), LAKERS @ Spurs (NBA)


• The crowd at the AT&T Center is one of the best in the NBA. Rowdy like crazy in the Miami game; against the Lakers not so much (being down 30 doesn't help) but still had a playoff atmosphere.


• Spurs still have the best record but Lakers are still the team to beat.


• Heat are so overrated.


• Will be back in San Antonio for the Playoffs when, here comes my prediction, my Lakers take on the Spurs in the Conference final. Come to think about it I'll be in San Antonio for Raw in May so maybe I'll make that trip a 2 for 1.

Pictures will be up tomorrow.

MrKhakbaz out

San Antonio trip, day 1 – Miami Heat vs San Antonio Spurs

I’ll start off saying that this game is somewhat of a bonus as the main reason of the trip was to see my Lakers taking on the Spurs… that being on Sunday, I thought I’d make the trip a couple of days early and enjoy the Spurs putting a whooping on the Heat (or at least that is what I hoped for).

Trip started off well as I made only an hour and a half from Monterrey to Laredo, the border crossing was only 25 minutes which is awesome, but then came the I-94 permit and its brutal 2 hour wait and 15 minute line to pay 6 freaking dollars. I’ll go on the record and say: “a 2.5 hour wait for a permit is BULL-FUCKING-SHIT… the fuck, I’m coming to spend money, to have a good time, NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO GO THROUGH THAT.

2 hour trip and I get to San Antonio and straight to the hotel (cheap Red Roof, yet never disappoints, best bang for the buck). Quick trip to the Riverwalk and off to the AT&T Center.

Parked pretty far but not too bad for 8 bucks, at this point it’s about 6:45pm (a bit less than 2 hours from tipoff), hoped they opened the doors 2 hours but nope. More standing around (that has been a trending thing today). So lots of standing around while I listened to a ton of “Lebron sucks” and “overrated” chants which I loved --- I think Lebron is one of the best players but a total asshole, more on that later---. This drums band starts playing and makes the wait a bit better, then comes a Spurs cheering squad and they start throwing t-shirts and I get one (day starts getting better). At 7:30 -1 hour before tipoff- doors open and we are in.

A quick tour around AT&T which is a pretty nice arena with a great atmosphere although the halls are not that big and are really crowded. Made my way up to my seat and picked up some buffalo wings and a coke (damn good combination). Got to my seat and munched my wings down.

The atmosphere was electric with tons of Lebron comments and chants. As soon as he steps on the floor the crowd is all over him. Out come Los Spurs (it was Latino night in the San Antonio, so we had El Heat and Los Spurs jerseys, along with a lot of Latin Music) and we get a huge pop by the sold out crowd. I can’t put into words the energy that was felt around the building. I found it quite funny that the song played right before the Heat introductions was one by Pitbull, it’s funny since he is from Miami (yeah weird me, but also weird they played a song that made the visiting team seem like the home team).

As always Manu Ginobili gets the biggest ovation during introductions, although the return of TP9 was well received. I can’t stress enough that the return of Parker is huge for the Spurs, although he did not look like himself from time to time he is a huge part of the team.

 The crowd was hot from the tip off and quick basket from Manu and the Spurs got the crowd hotter –If possible- going 8 for 11 from 3 point land in the 1^st quarter. So it we end the first 12 minutes with the Spurs up 36-12. The second quarter was a bit more balanced, mostly due to the Spurs lowering the intensity.

Side note:  how is it possible that in the AT&T Center my cellphone has no reception??? I guess all those bad comments about their service is true.

It ‘s not even worth the time to talk about the disaster the Heat are. For their talent level I expected so much more but you can see that they are horrible on defense: they rotation is brutal, lack of effort, poor coaching in general. On the offensive side you have 3 great players in Lebron, D-Wade and Bosh but they have no idea how to play as a team; individual talent will only take you so far but in order to win you must play as a team and have a good coach. I found it interesting that most Heat players talk to the assistants during time outs instead of Coach Spolestra, if they listen at all; most of the time the just wandered around, which I see as a sign of poor coaching, poor integration, lack of interest.

The game ended in a 30 point blowout by the Spurs, they hit 17 3 pointers (which is a team record, a nice thing to be part of live) and they handed the Heat their worst defeat of the season (which also was nice to see).

All in all it was a great day. Made it safely to beautiful San Antonio, had some great wings, some beer, saw on the greatest players ever (although I hate him off the court), got the chance to boo the hell out of him, and got to see the Spurs win big in what –in my opinion- was the hottest crowd I’ve ever been a part of.

Hope to see a Spanish edition of SportsCenter to hear the hosts say ESTA LEBRON or I WADE… a play on their names to make them sound like cursing. Funny if you speak Spanish, although I doubt they will show any good plays by El Heat –or maybe they will show that awesome And-1 play by Lebron with the 360 layup. (pics coming later)

After tonight’s game I can say: “Lebron take your talents, turn them sideways, shine them up real good, and stick them straight up your candy-ass” (Quote The Rock nevermore).

So tomorrow I got an off day -so to speak- so it’s off to shop, eat good food and enjoy San Antonio. Sunday I’m back to AT&T to watch my Lakers, this time showing no love for the home team (which I have a ton of respect as an organization and enjoy watching them) hoping to see another great game and a Lakers W.

MrKhakbaz out!!!