Baseball

Chants of "We're No. 2" are sure to be heard echoing through the air around Landsdowne Street when the Red Sox take the field for the upcoming 2010 baseball season.

The anticipated chatter will not be a predication of the Red Sox impending finish in the American League East, however, as much as acknowledgement of left fielder Jacoby Ellsbury's entry into an "exclusive club" of players who wore the number two on the back of their Red Sox uniform.

The end of last season was a disappointing one, but also one filled with hope – hope that next year small ball would finally be balanced with big bats, and we could go into 2010 with the enthusiasm of Rex Hudler.

No, I guess not.

Something happened to the Angels this off season, and it wasn’t pretty. Obviously, the death of Rory Markus is a tragedy that stands alone, and none of the other events are even in the same sentence.

Just as we enter spring training, it is that time of year. It is time to predict everything  that is going to happen in 2010. With the suprises of baseball, though, it seems you can never be too far out on your predictions, but you can never be just right.

The NL East is known as one of the top divisions in baseball. But last year with the injuries of the Mets, the Phillies took the division with ease. Here are my predicted rankings of how the east will be set on the last day of the year.

The Philadelphia Phillies Five Keys to the 2010 Season  (Part Two of a Five Part Series)

A significant factor in Ruben Amaro's decision to trade Cliff Lee relates to his "leap of faith" that this season's version of Cole Hamels will look a lot like the 2008 model.  

If nothing else, the Omar Minaya era certainly hasn’t lacked drama.

At first he looked like another Frank Cashen in the making when he rebuilt a floundering Mets franchise. His ability to lure Hispanic marquee free agents, coupled with his ability to find diamonds in the rough (John Maine for Kris Benson?! What a steal!), seemingly appeared to trigger an era in which the Mets would be a force for many years.

The 41-year history of the Kansas City Royals is a story of a meteoric rise to contention in the franchise's first 21 years, followed by a titanic fall to baseball's cellar in the last 20 years.

As an expansion team in 1969, the Royals became a winner after just two seasons and was a title contender for two decades. In fact, all seven of the team's playoff appearances occurred during a 10-year stretch from 1976 to 1988, making it to the World Series twice, winning it once in 1985.

In recent years, the NL West has been dubbed baseball's worst division. In 2005, the San Diego Padres won the division with a mere 82 wins, barely clinching a winning season. The other four NL West teams had losing seasons.

In 2006, not a single team reached the 90-win plateau and three teams endured sub-.500 seasons.

2007 finally brought two 90-win teams thanks to Arizona's solid season and Colorado's magical late-season run.

Jo Bydin was a young baseball fan when the Yankees 18-game winning streak was broken by the St. Louis Browns on June 16, 1953.

Jo rooted for the New York Giants, and any day that the Yankees lost was a good day for Jo Bydin.

The St. Louis Browns

The New York Yankees had high hopes of becoming contenders in 1966 after their disastrous sixth place finish the previous season.

There are few things I find more comical than when an athlete who has accomplished absolutely nothing in his profession tells everyone how great he is. We see this time and time again in sports.

The latest example of this would be C.J. Wilson of the Texas Rangers.

Wilson has been in the major leagues now for five seasons and yes, he has had a couple of good years, but the reality is he has been nothing more than set-up man/reliever in his career.