The Madness Has Begun

Rivalries are funny things. Yesterday was March 12; the regular season doesn't begin for another half month and most of the men who took the field in Ft. Myers won't be donning a major league uniform when the games start to count. But Spring Training or not, the first game of the 2007 chapter of the Biggest Rivalry in Sports still had the power to turn a rehab start for Carl Pavano into a do-or-die contest of hitting wills, a meet-and-greet between three Japanese players into an international rivalry expansion and 1:05 radio-broadcast start into a 7:05 TV event with a sold-out crowd, as if we were watching a pivotal game in a pennant race instead of a warm-up for this year's contests. The madness has truly made its decent upon us all.

However, I'm not sure this level of excitement is such a bad thing, kept in the proper context. Spring Training games are irrelevant at their best and downright boring at their worst, as a steady stream of players (who we won't see again until the circus returns to Florida the following year) make their way across the playing field to keep the game going and the starters from getting hurt.
Even now, as the teams get smaller, the rosters tighten and players start to see more innings, the end-game can be, at best, a time to see how those draft picks are doing. When the game becomes important for itself, as a contest between two teams with a lot of competitive history, it makes the whole game more exciting to fans. It's like throwing the first punch in a boxing match: it probably won't have anything to do with who wins (unless you're fighting Glass Joe), but it sure feels good to strike first. In other words, it doesn't count in the long run, but guess what! We beat the Yankees last night! Rock on!

Speaking of madness: Dustin Pedroia has a lower batting average this spring than Bobby Scales, who's pulled time as his late-inning replacement. Maybe Wonderboy's hitting so far this Spring is like screwing up the dress rehearsal so you do well for the live audience? If not, that nine hole is going to look mighty empty this year...