Baseball

Winning six of seven series to start the season, the signing of the hometown hero to a long-term contract, and the opening of a new ballpark has many fans thinking World Series.

The first Twins' first World Championship occurred in 1987. For many fans, this team will always have a special place in our hearts.

This was the first professional team to win a title for the state of Minnesota.

As then-second baseman Steve Lombardozzi proclaimed after the Twins defeated the St.

Coming into Friday night's games, it appears that the Oakland A's may have come out of the starting gate with a small, although not decisive, lead in the division race.

That's in spite of the fact that the four teams of the American League West have very similar records. And the first month of the season is just closing.

There are two considerations that put Oakland a little ahead. One is how well they've done in the division itself. The other is how many tough games outside the division they've played.

Enough with watching these Giants snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and having to listen to some knucklehead impersonate a first-grade teacher and say, "There's no reason to panic. It's still early in the season."

Oh, we'll hang with the Giants through all 162 games. It's the folks who think anything short of accepting every loss gracefully is actually a show of pure panic.

If you were to ask me in mid-March who I thought would be the A's leader in RBIs through the first month of the season, I probably wouldn't have said Cliff Pennington. 

Well, Pennington, a former first-round pick, is off to a strong start for the A's this season. Through 24 games, Pennington has managed to hit .250/.337/.461 and has collected a team-leading 15 RBIs. 

While his batting average is nothing to excited about, his unexpected display of power, however, should make even the most pessimistic A's fan feel all giddy inside. 

Daniel Murphy has been out for the entire season so far with a sprained right knee, but he is getting closer to returning to Flushing as he is currently down in Port St. Lucie hitting in the batting cages, according to Andy Martino of the NY Daily News .

The A's have had a promising start to the 2010 campaign. Some have left A's fans weeping saying "this looks all too familiar!" But there is room for optimism, and since I'm the optimism king of my Oakland A's, I feel it's my duty to keep fans uplifted.
At the beginning of the season I predicted a season winning percentage of no worse than .500 in 2010. I stand by that. The A's have the talent that goes far overlooked by the rest of the league. In fact, the A's could surprise everyone.

To use a Joe Maddonism, I'm "digging" John Jaso. You could make the argument that no Rays player has been better over the last ten games than Jaso. Considering the offensive tear this team is on, that's a pretty strong statement.

Has Jaso been the best Ray? Decide for yourself:

Player A: .342 avg, 1 HR, 12 RBI, 10-8 BB-K ratio

Player B: .286 avg, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 8-15 BB-K ratio

Player C: .455 avg, 1 HR, 10 RBI, 9-1 BB-K ratio

Getting off to a good start is important in almost every facet of life.

In baseball, starting off the season on the right foot can set a team up for a nice run deep into the season.

The ability to collect a surplus of wins in April does wonders for losing streaks that a team may experience further down the long road that is the Major League Baseball season.

Like any team in the MLB, the San Francisco Giants have had their own ups and downs during the first month of baseball.

The Arizona Diamondbacks faced the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field with demonstrators in favor of and against the new immigration laws signed by Jan Brewer (the governor Of Arizona).