PLAY BALL! Baseball starts on Thursday!

My attitude towards my favorite sports is experiencing a bit of a sea change lately.  My love for the NFL has started to wan in recent years, and my excitement every year for opening day of the baseball season has grown.  My frustration with the NFL primarily stems from the fact that the Redskins have been so abysmal for so long with no real improvement in sight.  Add to that the labor issues plaguing the sport, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Since I REALLY started following baseball in 1994 (the year MLB's own labor issues cost the fans the World Series), interest in the game has grown exponentially every year.  I started following the Orioles when Cal Ripken Jr. was on his way to breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive game streak, and then switched allegiances when the Expos moved to DC and became the Nationals.  Now you may ask how I can lose faith in football because of the Redskins when the Nationals suck just as bad?  Well, it's easy.  The Redskins lose and have been losing for a long time in very predictable ways, and it's simply pathetic.  The Nats, while they have had back to back 100 loss seasons are at least entertaining.  They never lose the same way twice!  Also, unlike the Redskins, the Nats over the past two seasons have made some moves that should greatly improve the team in the next few years to come.  They've pulled in a few quality veterans through free agency (Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche) and infused the team with young guys like Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasbourg who should, if they live up to their potential, help the team turn around in the relatively near future.  Will the Nats be a contender this year?  Probably not.  But I think they have a shot at becoming a .500 team, which would be a vast improvement and instill hope into the hearts of even the most cynical Nats fan.

Anyway, I'm lookig forward to a fun season.  I bought the MLB season package, so I'll be able to watch all the games from opening day.  I'm also going to try to get in to Daejeon a couple times a month to see some Hanwha Eagles games.

GO NATS!