By Sunny Cadwallader, co-founder
Happy Opening Day!
Unless you happen to be a fan of the Baltimore Orioles, Miami Marlins, Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers or San Francisco Giants. According to ESPN, these are the bottom 5 teams in their Major League Baseball (MLB) Power Rankings.
Heck, let’s just round out the bottom 10 and throw in the Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, San Diego Padres, Toronto Blue Jays and (sheds a tear) Seattle Mariners.
All, according to ESPN, have 100-1 odds or worse to make it to the World Series.
Thanks for playing. See you next year.
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As a fan of one of the aforementioned teams, I’ve asked myself, “What’s there to get excited about?”. Mariners’ management have said they’re in a rebuild. Wait until, not next year, but beyond that.
So…
2019 season? Meh. 2020? Meh.
Unless…
You’re a fan of baseball.
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There are plenty of reasons to be excited about baseball, if you love the game. With stars like Jose Altuve, Manny Machado, Ronald Acuña Jr and, of course, Mike Trout, baseball is as entertaining as ever.
One need look no further than Minor League Baseball (MiLB) to see the entertainment factor on full display.
Copa de la Diversión – “Fun Cup” – began in 2018 as a way for MiLB teams to connect and honor the Latino communities in their respective areas. 33 teams participated in the season-long copa.
MiLB describes it like this: “is a season-long event series specifically designed to embracethe culture and values that resonate most with participating team’s local U.S. Hispanic/Latino communities.”
This year, 72 teams have announced their participation in the initiative.
Some personal favorites include the Perros Santos de Charleston, Clinton Elotes, Lansing Locos and without a doubt, the Lowriders de Fresno.
None of this “Los Marineros” or token name stuff. MiLB teams are going all out to celebrate the Hispanic culture in their communities and on their teams. The Flying Chanclas de San Antonio? Count me in.
If one of these teams is in your area, or you’re there while on vacation this summer, get out and support the MiLB’s Copa de la Diversión.
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Before proceeding with my #PredictionsDoomedToFail for the MLB season, let’s celebrate one of the best to ever take the field.
I’ve watched baseball since I was a kid. Never had I seen a player quite like Ichiro. The arm was very Clemente-like, but everything else about Ichiro was very…well…Ichiro-like.
The dedication to his craft, his speed, the hits (the infield hits!!!), the aura he held with other Japanese ball players and the kid-like quality he had when around other (Griffey) stars all made up the player named Ichiro Suzuki.
Ichiro was baseball in the Pacific Northwest. Baseball was Ichiro too, but sooner or later baseball is no longer the player.
To you, Ichiro, I say, “Otsukaresama deshita“.
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One of my favorite hashtags is #PredictionsDoomedToFail.
Predicting anything is just spitballing. Or throwing darts while blindfolded. What’s that saying? Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in awhile.
Such is the case with me and sports predictions. Only, in baseball, I feel like it’s not that difficult.
Judging by those ESPN Power Rankings, only a handful of teams have 10-1 odds or better of making the World Series.
Baseball is a long season. Injuries to key pitchers or hitters in mid- to late summer can doom a team’s pennant race. Unless they have depth already, GM’s are scrambling to add that one last piece before the July 31 trade deadline.
No more August trades this year. MLB eliminated that age-old practice of waiver deals in August. Good thing too. Lord knows how many times I hoped for “one more bat” in these past 17+ years since the Mariners last made the playoffs.
But, I digress.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
- East: Yankees
- Central: Twins
- West: Astros
- Wild Card: Red Sox, Indians
NATIONAL LEAGUE
- East: Braves
- Central: Brewers
- West: Dodgers
- Wild Card: Phillies, Cardinals
WORLD SERIES WINNER: Astros in 6 over the Brewers.
Somos Sports 
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