05/19/2002 Archived Entry: "Baseball 2002"
Here were my April 1st picks:
AL West- Mariners
AL East- Red Sox
AL Central-White Sox
Wildcard- Yankees
NL West- Dodgers
NL East- Mets
NL Central- Cardinals
Wildcard- Cubs
So far, I've nailed it on the head with the AL. Seattle, Boston, NY all in their places. All right, but the WS are tied for first. Can we can count on Minnesota doing another late fade? In the NL, I'm so-so, NY is in first, STL & LA are just a few games out... except for that Cubs pick-- they've lost 9 straight! And I thought they would go to the series this year, lol. Oh well, doesn't matter, it's the Mariners year.
How could I have lapsed into picking the Cubs? I think it must have been a day I'd read another rendition of the Cubbie dreams from the Upper Left Coast Edge, this time.... I'm an AL guy nowadays. I grew up strictly NL, following the Dodgers, hometown favorite. There are early radio memories of them facing the Oakland A's in the WS, a double-header against the 70's Reds... . Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Billy Russell, Ron Cey: The infield for the ages. In the 80's we lived in Alaska, and used to go to games in the Kingdome, while waiting for the ferry. Then moved to Washington State, and listened their games, Dave Niehaus and Rick Rizzs replaced Vin Scully. Nowadays, I might get up to Seattle once a year for a game in the new Safeco field, but I like Portland's PGE Park.
The old Civic Stadium, with Tanner creek now piped 50 feet underground, was renamed PGE Park for their partially funding its' renovation before being bought out by Enron. Watching games above field level, left field on 18th street, from outside the park on is a gem. Not near as good as when I used to watch games there from atop the old Pines that then grew out beyond right field. The Portland Beavers, who were the old Albuquerque Dukes, moved out of New Mexico, and into Oregon in 2001. This one looks like a good upcoming game, against the Mariner's farm team:
Beavers vs. Tacoma
Date: June 04
Time: 7:05 PM
Opponent: Tacoma Rainiers
Venue: at PGE Park
Purist Night
There's a big movement in Portland to bring MLB to the state, with plenty of arguments for and against the idea.
