Fans from around the nation will gathering at the ballparks of their favorite teams as the 2011 season officially gets underway on Thursday March 31st. Each time will be trying to make the playoffs with dreams of winning the world series in the fall. I've been a longtime fan of baseball going all the way back to the 1970's, when Seattle & Toronto were the two newest expansion teams added. Growing up I was a fan of the Baltimore Orioles as they had such players as Steve Stone, Jim Palmer, Scott McGregor, Tippy Martinez, Eddie Murray, and Ken Singleton just to name a few players. Baltimore at one time had the best pitching staff in all of baseball before landing on hard times in the mid 1980's and haven't done much since.
The 1971 Orioles pitching staff consisting of Dave Cuellar, Pat Dobson, Jim Palmer, Dave McNally who went a combined 81-31 .723% as starting pitchers, are the last team posting 4 pitchers with 20 wins apiece. After moving to the west coast I started following the Oakland A's and watched them go to 4 straight world series and only winning 1 of them in 1989. Dave Stewart, who pitched for them during their 1980 glory years, is the last pitcher to have 20 games plus per season covering 4 years and that too hasn't been done since.
The last few seasons have produced many unpredictable finishes especially last season when the San Francisco Giants came out of no where and won their first world series since moving to the bay area in 1958. The last team who hasn't won a world series in 102 years entering this season are the Chicago Cubs who last won a world series in 1908, the closest the team came to possibly returning to the world series was in 2003, when a fan clearly interfered with a player on the field trying to catch the ball at the wall. In 2007 & 2008 the team again made the playoffs both seasons, however, they were swept 3-0 both times. Should the Chicago Cubs ever win a world series again there will be a celebration like none before or after in the windy city.
With the economy on current shaky grounds around the nation, many fans who aren't able to afford the tickets watch the games from the comfort of their own homes, where toilets are more accessible. Each season the baseball experts pick who they think will go all the way to the world series and possibly win, as I'm hoping a team no one really expects to even make it has a break out season and goes all the way.
To our armed services members across the world and the united states, we hope you're able to follow the games on the armed forces radio and or television networks when time permits such activity. These days I follow many teams, but, I still root for the Oakland A's one of three teams I've followed for over 3 decades, the other two teams being The Toronto BlueJays and The Baltimore Orioles.
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