MLB

CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira had two horrendous opening days, but are you honestly going to start freaking out about them? I hope not.

Their performances yesterday were nothing like what these players are used to doing. Sabathia walked five batters yesterday, and he averaged 2.1 walks per nine innings last season. Teixeira went 0-for-4 with five runners left on base, and Teixeira drove in 121 runs last season.

The Boston Red Sox opened their 2009 season with a 5-3 victory over the defending AL Champion Tampa Bay Rays and a strong all-around team performance.

Josh Beckett (1-0) led the way, allowing one run in seven innings while striking out 10, scattering two hits and three walks on 93 pitches. The lone Tampa Bay run Beckett allowed came on a Carl Crawford sacrifice fly.

Dustin Pedroia opened the scoring with his first home run of the season. off of James Shields in the first inning. Jason Varitek also homered in the sixth.

Bucky "f#@king" Dent was given a new middle name by Red Sox supporters after his 1978 home run in Fenway Park. It stuck with him for decades into the future.

Kyle Farnsworth earned that same middle name from Yankee fans as a result of his unreliable and putrid relief efforts.

Here is every single divisions standings, notes after each division, and their playoff picks.

AL

East                         W          L     

New York Yankees*  98      64

Boston Red Sox*      93        69

After a 27-hour weather delay, the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays started their 2009 Major League Baseball seasons.

The Rays, coming off an amazing 2008 season in which they defeated the Red Sox in seven games to win their first AL Pennant, had no answers for Boston's ace Josh Beckett.

Beckett coming off an injury in 2008 could not have pitched any better against new rival Tampa Bay. Beckett went seven innings on 93 pitches, allowing just two hits and one earned run, while striking out 10 batters and only walking three.

It would be nice to see the Cubs get back to the place where they belong.

Ok, so they have not been to the World Series since my great great grandpa watched Ty Cobb lace them up.

But with opening up of the $1.5 Billion House-that-A-Rod-financed-through-Public- Steroids a.k.a. the new Yankee Stadium, and the Cubs making a cameo in April, I think it only fitting the Wrigley wonders and new digs be home to the 2009 World Series.

Yesterday the Yankees trotted out their 140-million dollar ace to wow the lowly likes of the Baltimore Orioles. CC Sabathia, the reason the Brewers were in the playoffs last year, the work-horse who has thrown more innings in the past two years than anyone, Goliath himself, had one really bad day.

But it wasn't his fault.

It was windy, so the pitches weren't going where he wanted.

The crushing weight of being the Yankee's ace was way too tough—he's not used to it yet.

Once teammates, and now rivals in a different country, Hideki Matsui and Koji Uehara have a ton of similarities:

• Both are 34 years old and were born in Japan.
• Both players were first round picks of the Yomiuri Giants.
• Both players showed superb skills during their playing days in Japan.
• Both players were also friends off the field.

But now the biggest difference is that one is in pinstripes and the other is an Oriole.

White Sox fans, REJOICE!

It feels so good to actually be able to post that and have a proper meaning behind it. Worry not, this isn't some kind of a joke article about how to pass the time during the long season.

This is an article about the White Sox dramatic victory in their home opener against the Kansas City Royals, squeaking out a win right at the end of the game, coming behind Jim Thome's three-run blast into center field.