• Yankees at Red Sox, 4:05 p.m. PT — You’ll be watching this one whether you want to or not. It’s what pays the bills, eh? Chien-Ming Wang goes against Clay Buccholz.
• Angels at Mariners, 7:10 p.m. PT — Jered Weaver and Felix Hernandez… Vlad and Ichiro!… Monkeys and mooses (meese?)… This one’s got it all. Here’s your game of the day.
• Padres at Dodgers, 7:40 p.m. PT — Jake Peavy and Brad Penny hook up for the second time in a week. The big story — at least among people who don’t know much about baseball — is a mysterious substance that appeared on Peavy’s hand in their previous meeting. You’re better than that, though; you recognize that two of the game’s best pitchers will be battling tonight, and that’s what really matters.

Happy, happy…

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• Dodgers at Diamondbacks, 12:40 p.m. PT — Hiroki Kuroda looked outstanding in his North American debut. I expected the funky delivery that is characteristic of pitchers who come over from Japan, but the velocity caught me by surprise. He was pumping 93-mph fastballs against the Padres. Micah Owings gets the call for Arizona. He dominated the Rockies in his first start of ‘08 (although he only went 1-for-4 at the plate, LOL). Wasn’t there talk that the Snakes might stick Owings in the field at some point? I think that’s crazy, but it would be pretty cool — you know, in the same way that handlebar moustaches are cool.
• Reds at Brewers, 5:05 p.m. PT — Like offense? Josh Fogg and David Bush hook up at Miller Park. The lineups will include guys like Ryan Braun, Adam Dunn, Prince Fielder, and Ken Griffey Jr. I’m going to set the over/under on home runs at seven.
• Yankees at Royals, 5:10 p.m. PT — Two promising young pitchers square off in this one. Zack Greinke seems to have gotten his career back on track, while Ian Kennedy is still trying to figure out how the Rays beat the snot out of him last week. The Royals are 5-2. Heck, the Orioles are 6-1. And people say the world isn’t going to hell in a handbasket.

Rock on, my peeps…

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• Royals at Tigers, 10:05 a.m. PT — First off, Kansas City has taken the first two games of this series, which I’m sure nobody expect. Second, two talented yet enigmatic pitchers square off in this one. Zack Greinke appeared to get his career back on track in 2007 and looks to continue progressing this year, while Jeremy Bonderman tries to solve his first-inning woes and become the front-line pitcher folks have been anticipating.
• Blue Jays at Yankees, 4:05 p.m. PT — Two more young arms — Dustin McGowan and Philip Hughes — hook up in New York this evening.
• Pirates at Braves, 4:10 p.m. PT — Mike Hampton’s last big-league appearance came on August 19, 2005. He gets the start in this one. Working on 958 days of rest, he may be a tad rusty.

Play ball!

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At THT, I’ve gone with the popular pick except for AL West (I chose Mariners over Angels), AL Wild Card (Indians over Yankees), and NL Cy Young (Jake Peavy over Johan Santana — there’s my Padres bias kicking in because, hey, someone’s got to have a Padres bias).

I also have the Diamondbacks beating the Tigers in the World Series. We’ll see what happens…

How about you? Any predictions you’d care to share?

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Ordinarily in this space I would tell you which games are most worth watching, but on Opening Day, they’re all worth watching. The first games (Blue Jays at Yankees, Royals at Tigers) start at 10:05 a.m. PT, while the last (Astros at Padres; of course, I’ll be there!) gets going at 7:05 p.m. PT.

I can’t begin to tell you how glad I am that baseball is back. Enjoy the games!

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The Library of Congress has made a bunch of old baseball photographs available over at Flickr. The photo above is of Les Nunamaker, a catcher for the Red Sox, Yankees, Browns, and Indians from 1911 to 1922.

Nunamaker’s career line: .268/.332/.339. Among his 10 most comparable players are the excellently named Johnny Peacock and Clyde Kluttz, as well as “The Colonel,” Hall of Fame broadcaster Jerry Coleman.

This particular photo was taken in 1912. Little did Mr. Nunamaker realize that a century later, folks all over the world would be able to watch him playing catch on something called the Internet…

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Nats and Yankees trade –
Clippard, Albaladejo,
anonymous arms

Cincy trades Buck Coats
to Blue Jays for Justin James –
who are these people?

Cards drop Taguchi –
they are So over that guy,
you wouldn’t believe

Padres sell Terrmel
to Japan’s Pacific League,
where he will fight ham

(Yes, I know, but don’t ruin the joke.)

Brewers sign Riske
to a big three-year contract –
seems kind of risky

(Ugh, they’re getting worse.)

Cincy waives Cantu –
I sure can understand why
they did that, can’t you?

(Seriously, this is terrible.)

Nationals sign Boone –
Aaron, the old third baseman,
is still in the league!

Bucs drop Castillo –
if Pittsburgh releases you,
try a new career

Cleveland gets Carroll
from Colorado Rockies –
I’m out of bad puns

Nats sign LoDuca –
he was real good in ‘01,
as was Kevin Brown

Pads sign Randy Wolf
to incentive-laden deal –
good for 15 starts?

Brewers sign Gagne –
now that he’s in Milwaukee,
are they beer goggles?

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Once again the geniuses in the marketing department Of Major League Baseball have done it again. Now you can try and bid your hard earned cash on – you guessed it bug spray.

Yes, your eye’s aren’t playing tricks on you. You can bid on the bug spray that was used when the Yankees were taking on Cleveland during the American League Playoffs. So if you were trying to find that ‘hard to find’ gift for the Yankees fan who has everything look no further. They have some other things that they’ll be auctioning – but this seems to be the ‘hot ticket item’.

Yikes – I’ll have to pass on that one.

In other news, Jimmy Rollins is the National League MVP – just beating out Matt Holliday of the Colorado Rockies. Huh? Maybe I’m just not seeing it (which might be truer than you think..), but the guys who vote do. This was the closest vote since Terry Pendleton beat out Barry Bonds for the MVP award back in 1991. Honestly I was pretty darn sure that Matt Holliday would’ve walked away with the MVP with the kind of year he had.

Here’s what Rollins had to say:

“It never crossed my mind that I would go out there and win an MVP,” Rollins said on a conference call from California. “I had a real big smile on my face, to make it simple. I was excited but I wasn’t quite sure what to feel.”

This is also the first time teammates have won back to back MVP’s since Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds did it for the Giants in 2000 and 2001.

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By opting out, Rodriguez will forfeit the potential $91 million that is left on his contract. Also, the Texas Rangers, who traded Rodriguez to the Yankees in 2004, will not be responsible for subsidizing $30 million of his salary.

First off, can you even imagine kissing up to $30 million a year (his current deal was through 2010) goodbye on the assumption that you’ll be able to earn more on the open market? I so need a new line of work.

Hank Steinbrenner’s quotes are classic:

If you don’t understand the magnitude of being a Yankee and understand what that means, and being the highest-paid player in baseball, I think it’s pretty obvious.

And further down:

If we’re going to make you rich and we’re going to give you the privilege of being a Yankee, you’ve got to show us you want to be here.

Hank is George’s kid, but you probably guessed that already. I suppose the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Or would that be the Big Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree?

Either way, the next question is, who will give Rodriguez more money than he was making in New York? I mean, if baseball’s biggest spender can’t afford your services, then who can?

I smell bake sale…

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That said, long-time Yankees manager Joe Torre has stepped down. He was presented with a pay cut and refused.

I’m just looking over Torre’s record, and it’s stunning how good he’s been. With the resources at his disposal, you’d expect no less, but 10 AL East titles and 2 wild card appearances in 12 years is impressive. New York captured four World Series titles under Torre.

The Yankees won 90 or more games in all but one season (87 in 2000, when they won it all). They notched 100 or more victories four times.

This gets the guy a pay cut? Tough crowd, tough crowd.

It’ll be interesting to see what George Steinbrenner and company do next. My suspicion is that they will come to regret their decision. Don’t get me wrong, the Yankees will continue to compete because, like their rivals in Boston, they can afford nothing less.

But Torre brought the club in Bronx to levels of dominance it hadn’t seen since the Casey Stengel/Ralph Houk/Yogi Berra era (1949-1964). Torre represents a significant thread in the fabric of the Yankees’ storied history, and he will be more difficult to replace than I suspect Steinbrenner wants to believe.

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