This week, millions of baseball fans will flood into their hometown stadiums and either bask in the splendor of the previous season’s triumphs or take comfort in the fact that every team’s record starts at zero wins and zero losses. It’s a time of rebirth: Those still feeling the pangs of defeat from last year can hold out hope that this year there’s a new chance for playoff glory.
Major league baseball opening day
This week, millions of baseball fans will flood into their hometown stadiums and either bask in the splendor of the previous season’s triumphs or take comfort in the fact that every team’s record starts at zero wins and zero losses. It’s a time of rebirth: Those still feeling the pangs of defeat from last year can hold out hope that this year there’s a new chance for playoff glory.
Even the Houston Astros, who won only 55 of their 162 games in 2012—and who are projected to do even worse this year—are brimming with confidence. Manager Bo Porter has apparently been drilling a certain motto into the heads of his players: “Ignore the noise.” In other words, ignore the pundits and critics and just play hard. Perhaps it was that motivation that allowed them to take down the mighty Texas Rangers in Sunday’s opening game of the 2013 MLB season.
New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi may need to give Bo a call soon to pick up a few inspirational one-liners for his dejected team. With Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson on the disabled list (a turn of events made even more problematic now that Raul Ibanez, Russell Martin, Andruw Jones and Eric Chavez have taken flight to other teams), this could be the first season in years that the Yankees don’t make the playoffs. Unless Girardi has a few tricks up his sleeve (like, say, having Ichiro Suzuki play all three outfield positions at once), his team may well end up last in the American League East.
As victims of circumstance, the Yankees will eventually get out of their current rut. The Miami Marlins, however, have dug their own grave—and it’s too deep to climb out of any time soon. After filling seats in Sun Life Stadium last season with fans eager to cheer on big names like shortstop Jose Reyes and pitcher Josh Johnson, owner Jeffrey Loria spent the offseason dismantling the operation, trading away both Reyes and Johnson, along with pretty much all of the Marlins’ talent, to whomever wanted them. It was a veritable fire sale, and one that the Miami fan base didn’t appreciate one bit. Their scorn is already evident in the team’s ticket sales—the Marlins had to resort to Groupon to get people to the stadium on opening day.
Of course, it’s still very early in the season to judge a team’s future success, as rosters can only tell you so much about how a team will progress. Take, for example, the Los Angeles Angels, who, despite having Albert Pujols, Jered Weaver and 2012 MVP Mike Trout, landed at a dismal third place in the American League West last year. The Oakland Athletics, on the other hand—a team with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball and a roster full of scrappy young upstarts—ended up steamrolling through both the Angels and the Rangers to become division champions. Talent, after all, cannot stand on its own in baseball. A team must incorporate those other elements of the game—
collaboration, determination and, yes, motivation—if they hope to still be around in October.
