Hey, doubleheader... why not?
So it seems that baseball's 200,000th major league game will be played today. They're counting the start of the actual National League as the first game, mostly because it's easier to place a direct date on it that way. If nothing else, it's kind of cool that much as it's changed over the past 140 years, there's still a certain heart at the center of the game that ties it all together.
Now, before I go all Field of Dreams on everyone and start misattributing everywhere, there are urgent matters to attend to in Cleveland. A win today would ensure that the race to the bottom will fall short of its "target". Much as I believe that this is the worst year of Twins baseball since the franchise got here, it would be nice the ragtaggers to win back at least that much of their dignity. Hell, if they sweep the doubleheader, they would only need one more win to avoid 100-losses. That would be.......something, I guess.
Looking into the crystal ball, we've got three opening day batters in our lineup (which, if I'm not mistaken is about the most there can be for the rest of the season, so the lineup's not getting nay better than this). Rivera gets to try to out-Butera Butera. Right now he's at a .406 OPS, so it'll be exciting to see whether he can push that into sub-400 territory.
Brian Duensing's on the mound, if he can make it through five and a third innings, he'll qualify for the ERA title. Then again, if he gives up 4 runs in those five and a third, he'll have the worst ERA for any qualifier, so... go Duensing?
David Huff pitches for Cleveland, he ate us alive his last time out, so maybe 1982 isn't safe, just yet.