“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oh people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come” – Terrence Mann, “Field of Dreams”

“Pick me out a winner, Bobby” – Roy Hobbs, “The Natural”

Ah yes, Opening Day 2007. Baseball begins another season, and it’s great that the big day is finally here. Baseball’s opening day typically means two things: 1) Rob’s happy, ’cause it means the NFL draft isn’t far away and it’s just three months until football camps open, and 2) I don’t know how in the heck I’m going to be able to watch Red Sox games on TV. Haven’t heard yet whether Dish Network will be able to offer Major League Baseball’s “Extra Innings” package (although I don’t think so, as the only sports they are advertising currently is cricket and wrestling cage matches – wow, where can I sign up!), and I won’t know how well my supposed mlb.com subscription package is suitable for game-watching.

The other thing I’m a little nervous about is the fact that New England Sports Network (NESN) seems to be blacking out more and more of it’s non-professional sports programming. This weekend a bunch of Red Sox-related fare, including NESN’s 2007 Red Sox preview special, was blacked out to me, so now I’m wondering if they’ll be doing the same to the Red Sox pre-and post-game shows. That would be a bummer.

But the winter of our discontent is over and a new baseball season is about to begin. Just for the record, here are my latest pics:

AL East: Red Sox
AL Central: Chicago
AL West: Los Angeles
AL Wild Card: Toronto

NL East: Philadelphia
NL Central: Chicago
NL West: Los Angeles
NL Wild Card: New York

World Series: Boston over L.A. Dodgers

Play ball!