Take Me Out To The Ballgame

March 25, 2026 (Vol. 20 No. 12) - Hope springs eternal - especially if you are a baseball fan. And the more things changed, the more they stay the same. And that's the real charm of baseball.

The Major League Baseball season officially opens tonight with the New York Yankees visiting the San Francisco Giants in a game being telecast on Netflix. For the streaming platform, it's a first. Netflix joins ESPN and MLB.com in this nontraditional distribution approach, as will Peacock later this season. There's a new television contract this year, one that spreads the grand old game over a number of networks, including Fox and NBC. Things are also different for local broadcasters, but for a less positive reason. The failure of the a major distribution network has left several MLB franchises scrambling to find a television home for their games. If you are wondering where your favorite MLB team's games are being broadcast, click here.

Much is being made of the introduction of the ABS (Automated Balls and Strikes) system this season. Through the use of sophisticated radar imaging, an umpire's balls/strike call can be challenged. MLB is limiting each team to two challenges per game. Only pitchers, catchers and batters can challenge the call, and it must be done immediately. From what I have seen during the preseason, the system works very well. There isn't much lag between the appeal and the decision being flashed on the scoreboard. It has also shown that umpires are more often correct in their calls than the fans would believe. That adds to the credibility of game results. For those fans who decry the introduction of technology into the game, let me remind them that the introduction of the pitch clock a couple of years shorten the playing time of games by nearly a half-hour. That's a good thing.

For all the changes that have taken place in recent years, such as inter-league play and expanded playoffs, the game is essentially the same game I learned to love while growing up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the 1960s. I was, am and will always be a fan of the Baltimore Orioles. The 1960s was the era of Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer and Frank Robinson (pictured above in a 1966 photo). Those were heady days. They went to four World Series in six years, winning in 1966 and 1970. They went to another World Series in 1979. They won it all in 1983. I painfully remember the 1988 Orioles, who opened the season 0-21. However, true Birds fans did not give up hope. I also remember the 1989 "Why Not?" Orioles who came within a game of winning the division. That took us into the 1990's and the amazing saga of Cal Ripen, Jr. (below) who broke a consecutive games record that most people had thought would never be broken. His accomplishment became a national celebration.

After lean years in the 2000s, the Orioles returned to prominence winning the AL East in 2014 and 2023. And as this season begins, this Orioles fan is full of optimism for the future. I only hope they will win the World Series all at least one more time before my time on earth runs out. That's why hope spring eternal. At the start of every season, every fan's team has a chance - at least theoretically - of being the next World Champion. In a time of social and political unrest, isn't that expression of hope a good thing? That's it for now. Fear the Turtle. And Let's Go O's!