Three days til pitchers and catchers report!

The first benchmark of the 2009 season is almost upon us, and just a few days removed from the Bill Murray sanctioned groundhog day comes the baseball equivalent. Baseball Prospectus, the Cadillac of analytical statistic-based performance predictions, has released their projections for the 2009 season. It's surely comforting to see the Cubbies projected as run-away favorites in their division, but it's certainly not news. With Houston and St. Louis at least two years away from their prospects and rookies developing to the point that they can compete again, and Milwaukee falling apart at the seams faster than Ben Sheet's elbow, the path is pretty clear for NL Central dominance. (There have been rumblings of Cincy as a sleeper team to look out for, but that's a bigger long shot than A-Rod winning the Roberto Clemente award in 2009) So with the obvious aside let's get on to the subtle good news.

Now OF COURSE this is only a projection, but I can't deny that seeing the Cleveland Indians winning the AL Central made me smile. I've never been a fan of AL baseball, but I now have a favorite AL team, the Cleveland Indians. I've always been a defender of Kerry Wood, a man who could have abandoned Chicago a hundred times but always wanted to make sure he did something to repay the city and his fans. Certainly not a role-model (other than to the socialite, hot tub surfing crowd) but a good guy whose charitable contributions helped the city for many years. And now he's an Indian, and a team mate of the former Cub who I had a child-like hero worship for, Mark DeRosa. (I'll have to get a DeRosa #7 to hang next to my Vaughn #99) In my mind, you can't get any more respectable than a guy who played 6 different positions in a season and always managed to contribute offensively. He always did what was asked of him and more because his #1 priority was to do what was right for the team. He's the kind of guy Mike Singletary would love.

So now, I go into 2009 excited and hopeful. For the first time I'll be following two teams (You can't think of a fraction small enough to compare how much I want the Indians to succeed versus how much I want the cubbies to succeed), and the outlook for both of them is looking pretty rosy. All I have to say is, when I get 6 bleacher seats for the Cubs v Indians home series in June, who are the other 5 people who are gonna come with to be the D, e, O, S, and A?