Spring Ahead

Hey gang, we've gone past the Infernal Equinox and with the end of Daylight Wasting Time we've vaulted into the sunlight of midyear. That means several things; there's a whiff of jasmine in the air, the evening is late in coming and the baseball season is practically upon us.

It all begins on Tuesday when the Red Sox face the Oakland As in Japan. Boston, aside form losing asshole Curt Schilling to an injury, is at least as strong a team this year as last. Only a spate of injuries to such mainstays as Manny and Beckett will prevent them from another play-off run.  Hopefully the time shifts and jet lags implicit in an Asian opener can disorient them and help the Yanks get a foothold in that division.  As for the As, they traded away their best pitcher from last year, Dan Haren, and don't have much to show for it. Billy Beane may have some miracles up his sleeve, but the As look to fall far behind the Angels and Mariners in their division.

I'll leave other prognostication to later.  I'm fully involved now in the scouting and research activities requisite for a sensible Fantasy Baseball auction, which is also due early this year, on March 30.  I'm also considering logging onto an on-line auction for an alternative league, lest my picks with the Cheers do badly.  That decision will depend on whether I can expect my Internet connection not to die on me throughout the duration of the auction, which can take several hours.

In other competitions, I will have a lot more to say on the Hillary-Barack fisticuffs; suffice it to say now that my allegiances are slowly migrating from one of the candidates to the other, as, like other Democrats, I'm worried about electability, and would prefer a nominee who is not instantly hated (for no good reason, but still) by half the American population.

I'm sorry I've been such a laggard in this pursuit, and have lost all of my audience, but at least I still have a platform on which to practice my more elegant literary style.  I'm also composing this on an alternative platform provided by "Windows Live Writer," an outgrowth of Vista's messenger service.  After I'm done with this essay I will check on how accessible these contents are; given that it took me six months after a computer crash to relocate my blog, I don't suppose this set-up will do me any worse.  However, it is Vista, so Murphy's Law probably applies.