A Fortnight?

Two weeks. Two weeks from now we will be entering what is the sacred friar time. This won’t be pre-season, it won’t be practice. It will be the real deal. So what can we expect from the ol’ball club this 2005 time around the diamond?

Well first, Ryan Klesko is going to have a huge year. There are a couple of reasons for this, of course none of these reasons are the slight bit valid or based on any rational thinking. These justifications stem from pure gut feeling, the kind of feeling you get when you just know that next card you draw is going to be the one that makes your hand and cracks the one of the poor sap sitting across from you. Not that I would know what that is like what so ever.

First, he was horrible last year. Just abominable. I would guarantee that if you asked Ryan about his performance last year he would be terribly disappointed. He did manage to put it together the last month of the season or so, and started showing signs of being the hitter he once was. But, home run totals, or lack of them plagued our troubled outfield all season, and it is very conservative to say that Ryan wasn’t making up much for a lack of offensive production out there in left. I have seen riots across the globe in which protesters were fielding canisters of tear gas better than Ryan was playing the baseball last year.

Last season’s performance aside, the one factor that will virtually ensure that Ryan will be M.V.P. this year is my big mouth. Yep, I had to go and open it, and well a “friendly wager” ensued, and now of course I will lose the bet. Yes, my cohort here and I decided that a wager was necessary after the decree that Ryan would be back. Upon reflection of his 2004 attempt at baseballing, I began to chastise my cohort here for saying such ludicrous things. After a bit of bartering for statistics we settled what would be considered the numbers that would qualify Ryan having a “big” year for us this season. For simplicity we stuck to the triple-crown stats, and they go something like this:

Klesko’s Good Year:
.287/25/95

Now, I think that the home run total is low. I think that if I told Klesko he would hit 25 home runs this season, he would say that number would be higher. The average number is a toss up, this guy could hit .320 or he could hit .265, if he is healthy and out of that rut he couldn’t seem to climb out of last year, .287 is very reachable. Finally, the RBI. This could be a tough number to reach. A lot of other factors are going to have to come together for this category to be successfully completed.

All in all, I think we have a very fair and balanced wager here that will hold our interest in this upcoming baseball season at least on one level. The season tickets will help as well, the semi-new ballbark is still shiny and a great experience for baseball watching. Two weeks away. Two weeks.