Miami Marlins: Don’t panic. It’s only April
Yes, the New York Mets are on top of the NL East. The No. 1 and No. 2 teams of the NL Central have beaten us. And no, you haven’t woken up in Superman’s Bizarro world; it’s just the opening week of the new season.
Hell, even the AL East looks upside-down.
Today, our boys face Cole Hamels in the city with the most consistently obnoxious fans in sports. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the offense we produced in Cincinnati carries over to this series, and that Anibal Sanchez can keep the lid on a squad that’s missing a couple of their big producers. The indicators seem to favor us, and the tea I made with the ground-up ear bones of a five-year-old tile-fish didn’t taste bitter.
What I’m looking forward to is our first real home stand against the Houston Astros. The “Home Opener” against the St. Louis Cardinals was a press event for the new ballpark. This coming weekend, we’ll start to get a much closer look at how the park will play. I hope there are a couple of different roof configurations to look at.
As the press pool hammers away at this week’s theme (Boy, Those Marlins Really Need To Move Those Fences In, Don’t They?), please bear in mind that a high-school kid looped one over the wall. Once Mr. Stanton really gets a hold of one or two, such stories will peter out. I suggest that we ought to see how the park plays over the first two seasons, not the first two games. Give the statisticians some time to collect some data that leads to a supportable conclusion before you go around shortening up the fences.
The last thing I’d like to comment about is Ozzie’s comment about Fidel Castro. Yes, as a direct quote, it sure sounded like he is an admirer of the Bearded One. However, to his credit, he walked his comment back, saying that once he heard himself say it, it didn’t sound anything like what he was trying to say. Ozzie Guillen is a guy that says what’s on his mind, and has the marbles to stick with it, even when he reaps a pickup load of controversy. In this case, he took the unusual (for him) step of issuing an explanation of his thoughts on the subject. I may be a wild-eyed optimist, but I suspect he’s being honest about what he said.
Go Fish!