Red Sox-Athletics: Ides of March Can Mean Only One Thing

Steve Ross — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:51:09 -0400

While the historical significance of Caesar's fate on the Ides of March is not lost, for me and many baseball fans the Ides of March means that baseball season is not far behind. For Red Sox and A's fans the wait is even shorter. Those two teams will open the 2008 MLB season on March 25th in Tokyo Japan.

Teams have worked since last November rebuilding their rosters becuse in this era of MLB teams change from season to season. Free agent signings and losses, big ticket players are traded so teams will get compensation before losing the player to free agency. Four time World Series winning managers are non-renewed - or offered a significant pay cut to put the onus of leaving on the manager - because their teams haven't won a World Series in seven seasons.

The teams spend the second half of February and March in Arizona and Florida - the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues respectively - as players awaken their skills with the bats and gloves and the pitchers stretch out slowly as they prepare their arms for the long season. Unlike when I started watching baseball when players worked winter jobs and showed up to spring training needing to get in shape and lose fifteen pounds. Today's players make enough money even at the minimum ML salary to stay in shape and work on baseball throughout the winter.

As always the start of a new season is awaited with great anticipation. From the time when I was young it is one of my favorite days of the entire year. It is the beginning of the 162 games in 183 days marathon. The ups and downs are both unavoidable and what makes baseball such a great game. The games they should have won, the games they have no right winning, the walk off home runs, the blown calls by managers and umpires are all part of the game's beauty.

So, on March 25th I'll find a way to have to report to work late so that I can watch the first game of the season - starting time 6:00 a.m. EDT. The second game I'll have to watch on replay that afternoon on NESN and games 3 & 4 means being up late because of the 10:05 start of the 2 west coast games. Then there will only be 158 games left to watch, the earth will be warming it will be light until 8:30 in the evening and the crack of the bats will be filling the air. Ahh as winter fades - rather slowly in Central NH - my mind turns to baseball and that's nice, very nice.

Giants' Super Bowl Strategy: A New Idea for New York

Steve Ross — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:32 -0500

The pundits are running wild, maybe even more so than the running backs will be on February 3rd.

They have it all figured out, the many things the New York Giants will need to do in order to win Super Bowl XLII. These guys are geniuses—they come up with things even the most mundane NFL fan could imagine.

I believe I've come up with the ultimate ploy—the best move the Giants could make to level the playing field just a little more. More on that later, but first, just a few of the experts' profound observations...

The Giants will have to confuse Tom Brady. Seems easy enough. But if San Diego came the closest to that feat this season, I would not put a lot of faith in that happening. The Patriot offense was overwhelming the second half of the AFC Championship Game.

Another bright idea: New York's front seven will have to dominate the line of scrimmage. Duh, the Patriot front seven will have to dominate also. But the truth is, both lines are fairly evenly matched. So unless one team just goes out and plays better than the match-up seems to allow, I don't see either team dominating.

A final stroke of genius: Eli Manning will have to be the guy to win the game for the Giants. He'll have to have the game of his life. No kidding? Wow, this is great. New York must be one loose team. That's all they have to do—piece of cake.

As promised, however, I do have one more thought:

The Giants should hire Rochelle Washington for a position on the sideline.

Just put her to work on some menial job, filling water bottles or something.

That way, Randy Moss—with the required 500 foot buffer zone—would not be allowed on the field. Talk about taking him out of the game!

Then Plaxico Burress may be right, the Giants receiving corps may well be as good as the Patriots.

Of course, the New York players should also be on guard—if someone ran into her or accidentally stepped on her foot, they may be facing a buffer zone of their own.

Bleacher Report - Articles by Steve Ross

Red Sox-Athletics: Ides of March Can Mean Only One Thing

Giants' Super Bowl Strategy: A New Idea for New York