Play Ball! Major League Baseball’s Opening Day is here, kicking off the 2018 season. From the World Series champion Houston Astros to the New York Yankees, find out when your favorite team will hit the field.

It’s the earliest Opening Day in Major League Baseball history. Practically every single team will be in action on March 29, kicking off the 2018 baseball season with a bang. Initially, all 30 teams were going to be in action, but the match between the Washington Nationals and Cincinnati Reds has been pushed to Friday, March 30 due to inclement weather. Still, there will be plenty of baseball to go around.

So, why is there baseball in March? It’s all due to the most recent Collective Bargaining agreement. Starting in 2018, the regular season has been expanded to provide four additional off-days for players, according to Forbes. Instead of expanding the season further into the year, it was decided to kick things off sooner. Ergo, baseball in March. Hey, giving players more time to rest and recuperate is great.

This was supposed to be the first time since 1968 that every team celebrated its Opening Day on the same date. Then, the Red/Nationals had to go and ruin it. Oh well. That 50-year-old record will stand until next season. As for the early picks as to who will win the Worlds Series, the experts over at CBS Sports are evenly split: two think the Chicago Cubs will win, while two others think it is the Nationals’ year. One expert, Dayn Perry, has faith the Cleveland Indians will come through. Will they be right, or will the New York Yankees (who acquired Giancarlo Stanton) prove too strong for everyone else in the MLB?

Here’s the Opening Day schedule for all 30 teams (courtesy of USA Today.)

Chicago Cubs at Miami Marlins, Thursday, March 29, 12:30 p.m.

Detroit Tigers at Pittsburgh Pirates, Thursday, March 29, 1:10 p.m.

St. Louis Cardinals at New York Mets, Thursday, March 29, 1:10 p.m.

Minnesota Twins at Baltimore Orioles, Thursday, March 29, 3:05 p.m.

Houston Astros at Texas Rangers, Thursday, March 29, 3:30 p.m.

New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays, Thursday, March 29, 3:37 p.m.

Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays, Thursday, March 29, 4:00 p.m

Los Angeles Angels at Oakland Athletics, Thursday, March 29, 4:05 p.m.

Milwaukee Brewers at San Diego Padres, Thursday, March 29, 4:10 p.m.

Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves, Thursday, March 29, 4:10 p.m.

Chicago White Sox at Kansas City Royals, Thursday, March 29, 4:15 p.m.

San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers, Thursday, March 29, 7:00 p.m

Cleveland Indians at Seattle Mariners, Thursday, March 29, 10:00 p.m.

Colorado Rockies at Arizona Diamondbacks, Thursday, March 29, 10:10 p.m.

Washington Nationals at Cincinnati Reds, Friday, March 30, 4:10 p.m.

Play ball!</s>The Major League Baseball season opens Thursday. Essentially, the 10 teams to beat are the same group that made the playoffs last year when the Astros defeated the Dodgers in a thrilling seven-game World Series.

The Astros, Cubs, Yankees and Red Sox are at the of the top of the class because they all improved with their moves in the offseason. The Indians, Nationals and Dodgers all lost key players and are a notch below, in my humble opinion.

Six of these seven teams will be the division winners. The Wild Card races are mostly wide open.

I’m picking the 2016 World Series-winning Cubs to come back and defeat the defending-champion Astros in another epic Fall Classic.

Of course, there will be outliers, there always are. Last year, they were the D-backs in the National League and the Twins in the American League.

The D-backs flipped from a 93-loss season in 2016 to 93 wins and a Wild Card berth. The Twins were so out of it management actually shed pitching at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. They then came on like gangbusters, securing the American League’s second Wild Card spot, and ultimately losing that game to the Yankees.

My 2018 outliers are the Phillies in the NL and the Angels in the AL. Both teams are progressing and made big acquisitions since the end of last season. The Phillies penned Carlos Santana as a free agent and just signed right-hander Jake Arrieta, adding the former Cy Young Award-winner to a cast of young players headed now by first-year manager Gabe Kapler.</s>MLB opening day 2018 is here, featuring the first full slate of opening games in 50 years. March 29 is the earliest season starting date in the league's history. The previous earliest date was set back in 2003 on March 30, according to MLB.com.</s>On Major League Baseball’s opening day Thursday, hope springs eternal across the country. Even as Chicago Cubs fans shiver in their puffy blue jackets, New York Yankees fans rub their hands together in the Bronx, and millions of baseball fans search box scores at work, a unity among people from all backgrounds not only exists, it flourishes.

So does patriotism. The “Star-Spangled Banner” actually debuted in the sports world thanks to baseball. In 1918 during Game 1 of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs, Babe Ruth – a man who would become arguably the most iconic home run hitter – and his teammates first sang along to the national anthem. The Cubs followed suit, and the pageantry quickly spread to every team across the league. Appropriately, baseball earned the nickname “America’s Pastime.”

Now, compare that to the modern-day National Football League, where the en vogue trend has been to kneel for our country’s most emblematic sign of solidarity. This movement, spearheaded by the now-unemployed Colin Kaepernick, is meant to protest police brutality against African-Americans. Supporters will tell you it has nothing to do with the flag … despite players using the American flag as a prop to give themselves the most publicity.

When President Trump weighed in on the matter, which he repeatedly and rightfully did, at least 200 players knelt or sat during the anthem last Sept. 24. Many of those players – on the Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars rosters – actually had the audacity to still stand for “God Save the Queen” prior to kick off in London. It was a blatant sign of disrespect, followed months later by an even more egregious act.

The league rejected a print ad for this year's Super Bowl program that read “#PleaseStand.” In response, a NFL spokesperson said the Super Bowl has “never been a place for advertising that could be considered by some as a political statement.”

Hey, Commissioner Roger Goodell, how about you tell your own players that?

You know how many baseball players have knelt during the national anthem?

Bruce Maxwell, a catcher for the Oakland A’s, joined in the protest late last fall. It was short-lived and he failed to garner any participation from teammates. This is in part because most baseball players see the consequences of an ongoing problem in this current political climate: Debate isn’t just relegated to politics anymore.

Athletes and coaches increasingly use America’s beloved pastimes, and their participation in them, as a method of division. But in reality, sports should exist as a way to bring Americans together. Just one regular baseball season provides 162 opportunities for refuge from tiresome rigors of everyday life or from the wounds of tragedy.

At Yankee Stadium in Game 3 of the 2001 World Series, baseball helped Americans transcend the most horrific act of terrorism on U.S. soil – 9/11. Against security recommendations, then-President George W. Bush decided to make an appearance and throw out the first pitch. He strode onto the field waving one hand and holding a baseball in the other. Smiling ear to ear, the president took the mound and calmness instantly enveloped the stadium. As soon as the ball hit the catcher’s mitt, cheers and chants of “U-S-A” erupted.

“The country, which was rallying at the time, had further caused a rally to see baseball being played, and I was just a part of that,” President Bush told ESPN. “I didn’t realize how symbolic it was, though, ‘til I made it to the mound.”

Even before that game, baseball helped bring Americans back to normalcy after 9/11. The Mets and Braves played each other when games resumed that season after the tragedy, and for one beautiful, brief moment two bitter division rivals tipped their caps to the people of New York City and shared a feeling of resiliency.

That same embodiment of hope propelled an already extremely talented Houston Astros roster to a World Series clinch over the Dodgers last year. Game 6 scored Fox its best ratings in almost a decade after the Dodgers staged a rallying comeback.

Even though the larger market team didn’t win the Commissioner’s Trophy, it felt like the whole country shared a piece of joy with the Astros.

As Houston learned from Hurricane Harvey, catastrophe can strike from Mother Nature too, and even though thousands of Houston residents lost most of their belongings and homes, a baseball team managed to rekindle their spirit.

All of our spirits will once again reignite with pleasure as the 2018 baseball season kicks off. As you enjoy a hot dog, watch a flyover, and tip your cap to veterans, take a minute to appreciate the beauty of a sport that, unlike the NFL, contributes to and enhances the patriotic fabric of our country.</s>Last night the Chicago Blackhawks lost two goalies and were forced to press an emergency goalie they signed earlier in the day into action. That emergency goalie, Scott Foster, stopped all seven shots attempted by the opposing Winnipeg Jets.

That doesn’t seem all that odd until you realize that in the NHL emergency goalies are not like minor leaguers you call up or members of an NFL-style taxi squad. Per the weird NHL roster rules, guys who fill that role hardly ever play and don’t even dress for the game. It was rather flukey that Foster even saw action. He has a day job as an accountant, for Pete’s sake, and last played competitive hockey in the 2005-06 season at Western Michigan University. He’ll likely go back to accounting on a full time basis because he only made $500 yesterday. It’s like hiring a temp.

That’s a pretty neat story. One that made me wonder if an analogous situation could ever occur in Major League Baseball.

OK, I know it couldn’t happen, practically speaking, because teams have bench players, emergency catchers and minor league reserves on call as a matter of course. No, what I’m really wondering what would happen if a big league team could sign an accountant to a one-day contract and what would happen if that guy had to play.

My wife happens to work for a small accounting firm. It’s a good group of people. I go to their firm bowling outings and holiday parties and stuff, but I’m not sure I’ve paid close enough attention to the office’s aggregate level of athletic talent to know if anyone there could do it for sure. Here are the data points I had as of a few minutes ago:
• We all went to a Columbus Clippers game last summer, but all that showed me was who could drink beer in the sun the best [me, natch];
• On the wall of the office when you walk in the front door of the place there are three framed baseball jerseys with the partners’ names on the back. I’m not exactly sure why — the place has no baseball connection whatsoever and does not even field a rec league softball team — but it’s kinda cool;
• My wife’s boss, Jim, has a bottle of Beanball Bourbon from the Cooperstown Distillery on the shelf of his office, which I think was a gift from a client. That’s likewise inconclusive as I have the same bottle and I can’t play baseball at all.

Could any of the accountants at my wife’s office fill in for the Cincinnati Reds if, say, Scooter Gennett, Jose Peraza, Eugenio Suarez and Cliff Pennington all got eaten by sharks at the Newport Aquarium three hours before game time, if I-71 between Louisville and Cincy was blocked by a landslide and if Trump ordered the FAA to ground all air traffic for the day for, I dunno, reasons? What if the Reds had NO CHOICE WHATSOEVER but to put an accountant into the game and on that same day my wife’s firm was at Great American Ballpark on a company outing? I decided to ask my wife.

Me: Could any of the accountants at your office play one inning of major league baseball in any capacity and be credible? This is actually a serious question I’m writing an article about it.

Allison: What are you even talking about?

Me: An accountant played in an NHL game last night. I want to know if one can play baseball.

Allison: Jim says no. Maybe Matt.

Me: What are Matt’s qualifications?

Allison: Matt is the least fat and most in shape.

Me: How old is Matt?

Hmm. I was getting a little worried here. As we’ve written so often recently, baseball is becoming a young man’s game. Bartolo Colon can’t make a roster anymore. Ichiro is only on a 25-man because of nostalgia. And that’s before you realize that those two guys can play baseball. Was there anyone else at the firm who could play?

Allison: Wait, Bruce says Jamie is actually the most in shape, but we’re not sure if he knows anything about baseball.

Me: What are Jamie’s qualifications?

Allison: He was all-state football in high school.

Crap. Alright. Sorry Matt, but Jamie may have some athletic muscle memory that has almost but not entirely disappeared. He gets the call.

I mentioned the Reds suffering an infield catastrophe earlier because, really, I don’t think anything else would remotely work. There’s just too much ground to cover in the outfield for a 40-something accountant. Pitching and catching would be downright dangerous. No civilian has the arm for third or short. Second base may be harder to field than first base, but a first baseman may be killed by a hard throw from one of the other infielders. Also: no damn accountant is moving Joey Votto off of first base anyway.

So we put Jamie at second base. He bats eighth, with the pitcher batting seventh (Billy Hamilton seems to own the ninth slot these days). Just let me enter all of these variables into the simulator, and . . .

Ok, Jamie got no fielding chances in the first two innings and then went 0-for-1 in his only plate appearance in the bottom of the second. Specifically, he struck out on three straight batting practice fastballs from Max Scherzer of the Nationals who was NOT AT ALL pleased at having to deal with this crap.

In the top of the third Jamie was killed by Bryce Harper who was running from first base on a grounder to short as Jamie attempted to cover the bag. The game was canceled and the Reds forfeited because they could not scrape up all of his body parts from the base path. RIP Jamie.

All of which is to say: great job, Scott Foster! That had to have been much harder than it looked!</s>It’s Opening Day in Major League Baseball! Sports Director Dave Collins offers up his predictions for the 2018 season before first pitch this morning. Enjoy the season fans!

NL Wildcards AL Wildcards 

 1. Rockies 1. Red Sox

 2. Mets 2. Twins

 NLDS ALDS 

 1. Dodgers over Rockies 1. Yankees over Red Sox

 2. Cubs over Nationals 2. Astros over Indians</s>It’s the most wonderful time of the year, at least for me: Thursday is Opening Day for the 2018 Major League Baseball season. Over the next few months, we’ll have nearly 2,500 chances to settle into a game of America’s favorite pastime, which has a lot of reckoning to do this year. This season, my wish list includes watching games while drinking beer with friends — as well as seeing serious changes within the sport when it comes to sexual harassment, abuse, race, and inequality. Below, four reasons I’m excited for Opening Day.

When I bring up player harassment in baseball, people often tell me to relax and/or shut up. Often the rationale is that talking about one abuser means I would need to be upset about many, many teams and players — which I am, and I don’t think it’s terrific logic anyway. This year, my hope is that, propelled by the #MeToo moment, MLB will actually do something about this problem.

Historically, it’s done very little to show it cares about women. When Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang was accused of sexual assault in 2016, the team didn’t even postpone his bobblehead day. The player hadn’t been convicted, but the law doesn’t guarantee rights to … bobblehead days.

I’ll never forget being at Yankee Stadium when Aroldis Chapman, accused abuser, debuted in the 2016 season and the Jumbotron displayed his face backdropped, poignantly, by angry flames licking at his jersey. He had been suspended for 30 games earlier in the season; still, that year, he was eventually the owner of a Chicago Cubs World Series ring. When a photo surfaced recently of a severely bruised batter who’d been hit by a Chapman pitch, it was hard not to think about the abuse allegations.

More recently, when the Detroit Tigers signed catcher Derek Norris, who’d been suspended related to abuse allegations, the team reportedly didn’t bother to so much as speak to him about it.

There are (unfortunately) plenty more examples, but essentially: If a player is suspended for a short period of time after an assault allegation, then reinstated with glory, what does that say about MLB’s stance on assault? And what stories aren’t we hearing because accusers see the odds stacked against them?

Baseball is having more conversations about race and inequality.

I want more people having conversations like the ones journalists Jay Caspian Kang and Alvin Chang have inspired on baseball’s “unbearable whiteness.” I want an MLB player who can talk about justice and politics like LeBron does. (I don’t see any player sending a “u bum” tweet anytime soon, but we can dream.) I want to focus on the exploitation of players — of Minor Leaguers, of those recruited from Latin America (and of many other groups). Some social progress is happening already, but it’s long overdue: For instance, this is the final season the Cleveland baseball club will use its disgusting Chief Wahoo logo.

A pure love for the game of baseball.

And there’s, you know, the games themselves. I’m excited to have the sense of peace I get at games back in my life. Late last summer, my grandfather, a baseball fan who taught his daughters to love the sport, passed away. When I got the call, I first called my mom, then my cousin. And then I looked to see if the Mets were in town. Sitting alone in the summer heat, methodically marking notes in my scorebook, drinking a beer: This is my therapy.

Going to games with friends is wonderful too! My mom was the person who taught me to love baseball — and thanks to my mom, my love for the sport doesn’t come from someone (probably a man) whose love is based on statistics. She taught me how to score a game, yes, but she also taught me how fun games are supposed to be, and how emotional. It makes me sad when friends say they hate baseball. What’s the problem with sitting in the sun, drinking beers with your friends, watching a game that can take you through the whole spectrum of human emotions? Don’t let stat-heads bog you down.

Of course, all the specific athletes and teams I can’t wait to see.

I grew up a fan of the Kansas City Royals, which means terrible seasons are oddly comforting to me and I’ll be tracking their likely-terrible rebuilding season. But if I want to see someone win? I’ll hop the train to Queens, and maybe, just maybe, the New York Mets will be able to help! And Wright Thompson’s recent story for ESPN about the complicated interiority of Ichiro Yuzuki has me excited to watch the player this season as he returns to the Mariners.

It’s next to impossible, even if you’re a Yankee hater, to not be charmed by Aaron Judge, so I’m looking forward to watching him hit homers all season with Giancarlo Stanton. (And I’m hopeful there will be Mark McGwire–Sammy Sosa levels of fanfare. Oh, speaking of: Sosa was once accused of beating his wife.) I’ll pay particular attention to the American League Central — not just because I’m a Royals fan (beat the White Sox today, guys!), but also because in April I’ll see fellow division members Cleveland and the Minnesota Twins face off in MLB’s first series in Puerto Rico since 2010. (I’ll go even in light of assault allegations against the Twins’ Miguel Sano.)

There’s a lot to look forward to this year — and, I hope, a sea change for baseball culture. But let’s not forget one of the best parts of the season: the hair.</s>He is a particular species of baseball flower that’s never been known before, at least not in the last century: a right-handed pitcher endowed with breathtaking 103mph heat and a left-handed hitter who sprays balls into both gaps when he’s not tattooing them into the seats, all in one baby-faced, freakishly athletic 6ft 4in, 215lb package.

Meet Shohei Ohtani, the 23-year-old Japanese polymath whose childhood dream of testing himself against the world’s best will be realized this week as he makes his long-awaited Major League Baseball debut with the Los Angeles Angels amid deafening hype from both sides of the Pacific.

The expectations for Ohtani, whose two-way prowess years ago earned him the heady billing of Japan’s Babe Ruth, have been tempered somewhat after a rocky spring training that augurs a steep learning curve to success in the American major leagues. He surrendered nine runs and nine hits in a combined two and two-thirds innings – more runs allowed than outs recorded – over a pair of starts against lineups dotted with minor-league hitters. He hasn’t fared much better at the plate with three hits in 28 at-bats: a frigid .108 average.

But wherever the forecasts for Ohtani may fall – and they run the gamut – there’s no question he remains the most compelling prospect in Major League Baseball as the season kicks off on Thursday. Angels manager Mike Scioscia announced Tuesday night that Ohtani will make his regular-season pitching debut in Sunday’s game against the Oakland Athletics, while indicating he could appear in the batting lineup even sooner.

It’s been a long time coming for the prodigy from the rural city of Oshu, a few hundred miles north of Tokyo. A national sensation as a high-schooler, Ohtani initially expressed a desire to bypass Japanese baseball altogether and move straight to America, immediately drawing interest from a gaggle of MLB’s richest clubs including the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and Texas Rangers. The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, the world’s top league outside of North America, drafted him despite the disclaimer and persuaded him to play domestically with a rare offer: he could remain in the everyday lineup as a hitter on the days he wasn’t scheduled to pitch.

A recounting of Ohtani’s exploits from his five seasons with the Fighters reads like plot points from a tall tale.

There was his second professional season with the Sapporo club when Ohtani, a teenager only two years removed from Hanamaki Higashi High School, won 11 games as a starter while hitting 10 home runs as an outfielder, becoming the first player in either the Japanese or American major leagues to reach double figures in both categories in a single campaign since Ruth in 1918.

There was the 2016 season when he was tabbed Most Valuable Player of the Pacific League in addition to being named the league’s best pitcher and designated hitter – winning the Home Run Derby for good measure.

There was the time later that same year when he made a rare appearance in relief to lock down a crucial game against the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in the Climax Series, twice hitting an NPB-record 165kph (103mph) during a perfect ninth and lifting the Fighters to the Pacific League pennant.

There were the countless exhibitions of power, none more eye-popping than the day he sent a ball clear through the roof of the Tokyo Dome.

Ohtani’s numbers during a half-decade with the Fighters speak for themselves: a career earned run average of 2.52 with 654 strikeouts in 85 appearances as a pitcher, with a batting average of .286 with 48 home runs in 403 games played as a hitter. “He’s so talented,” Hideki Kuriyama, Ohtani’s manager with the Fighters, told CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes last year. “It’s really tough to use him the right way, with the right balances.”

Now the biggest challenge of all looms: following in the footsteps of Japanese exports like Hideki Matsui and Ichiro Suzuki, who made good on their dizzying hype on American soil.

Perhaps the most encouraging telltale of Ohtani’s inner drive is his decision to join the Angels this year, when he was still hamstrung by rules under MLB’s collective bargaining agreement that cap spending on prospects under the age of 25 with unresolved commitments to professional teams in international leagues.

Consider that Ohtani will earn the major league minimum salary of $545,000 this season in addition to a $2.32m signing bonus from the Angels, who control his rights for the next six years and won’t be eligible for free agency until 2023 – the same as any rank-and-file prospect – after paying the Fighters a posting fee of $20m. Had he spent two more seasons picking his teeth on Japanese pitchers (and hitters) while only redoubling his mystique, Ohtani could have commanded as much as $200m on the open market.

Instead, the desire to test himself against the world’s best competition prevailed, which speaks to the depth of Ohtani’s character and self-belief – and limits the Angels’ vulnerability if he fails to deliver on expectations. Whether the gamble on himself will pay off remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt the eyes of two baseball-mad countries will be hanging on every pitch.</s>When the US Major League Baseball season begins today (March 29), one of the most closely watched players will be Shohei Ohtani, who is debuting in the US after a remarkable four-year career in Japan. Ohtani, who will play for the Anaheim Angels, was the both the best hitter and pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball last season, an accomplishment so unusual that he’s invited comparisons to Babe Ruth. (Though his sub-par performance in spring training may have dampened some of that enthusiasm).

Ohtani may be the most notable import from Japan this season, but he’s far from alone. Last year, eight Japanese-born players plied their trade in the majors, extending a modern-era streak that started in 1995, with Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo. Japanese players in the majors have had mixed success: some have flamed out, others have become genuine stars.

But Nippon Professional Baseball isn’t just a staging ground for prospective major leaguers, but a thriving Japanese institution in its own right. Baseball, called yakyu, is Japan’s most popular sport. Just as in the US, baseball cards are avidly collected in Japan. Among the most prized are pre-war menko, colorful cardboard discs or rectangles used in a game where the object was to flip an opponent’s card, similar to pogs.

Teams are named for their corporate sponsors (hence the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks), fans sing and cheer throughout the game, and concessions stands sell sake and bento boxes. (Also, there are cheerleaders.) The game is different on the field, too: Japanese teams emphasize manufacturing runs through teamwork, not solo heroics, and the sacrifice bunt, a self-effacing tactic all but abandoned in the US, continues to flourish.

Now in its 83rd year, professional baseball is a true Japanese institution. It’s also gaining more attention from American fans who see a mirror version of their familiar game, with its own vibrant traditions and history.

1872 or 73: Baseball is introduced to Japan by Horace Wilson, an American professor of English in Tokyo, to encourage his students to be more physically active. The first Japanese team is formed a few years later.

1896: A team from Ichiko, an elite Tokyo high school, beats a recreational team of expatriate Americans 29-4, spurring the adoption of baseball among Japanese high schools.

1934: A team of American all-stars—including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jimmie Foxx—plays a series of exhibition games in Japan. Ruth hit 14 home runs in 17 games, and was a sensation.

1936: Japan’s first professional league is formed, and later reorganized as Nippon Professional Baseball in 1950. The same year—11 years before Jackie Robinson broke major league baseball’s color barrier—James Bonner, a 24-year old African American pitcher from Louisiana, was signed by Dai Tokyo, the precursor to the Yomiuri Giants.

1957: Wally Yonamine, the first American to play professionally in Japan, is named MVP of the NPB’s Central League. Born in Hawaii, Yonamine also played professional football with the San Francisco 49ers

1964: Manasori Murukami, a pitcher, becomes the first Japanese player in US Major League Baseball, playing nine games for the Giants.

1980: Sadaharu Oh, the “Japanese Babe Ruth,” retires from the Yomiuri Giants after 21 seasons and with 868 career home runs, the most in any professional baseball league

1992: The Tom Selleck comedy Mr. Baseball is released, about a New York Yankee who is traded to the Chunichi Dragons

1995: Hideo Nomo, a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, is named National League rookie of the year. Nomo was the first Japanese player to star in the US, throwing two no-hitters and twice leading his league in strikeouts.

There’s never been a player quite like him, on any continent. Ichiro Suzuki—who, Prince-like, goes by just his given name—was a superstar outfielder for the Orix Blue Wave when he left Japan at age 27 to play for the Seattle Mariners in 2001. Japanese hitters hadn’t yet found success in the US, and there was skepticism about whether he could handle US pitching. He quickly demolished those doubts, leading baseball in batting and stolen bases, and was named both rookie of the year and most valuable player in the American League. Ignited by Ichiro, the 2001 Mariners won 116 games, a major league record.

With his distinctive chopping swing, Ichiro kept piling up the hits—including 262 in 2004, breaking an 84-year old record for hits in a season—and finished last season with 3,080 major league hits. Combined with his total from Japan, he has 4,358 hits through 2017, the most of any player ever, even if Pete Rose, the US hit king, refuses to acknowledge Ichiro’s preeminence.

Ichiro’s reputation wasn’t just made with his bat, however. Along with his speed on the basepaths and awe-inspiring throwing arm, he’s a style icon who carries his bats in a custom-made dehumidifying case. His work ethic is legendary: as a minor leaguer, he would wake up at 1 a.m. to practice his swing for three hours in the dark before going back to sleep. In 2009, he tried to play with a bleeding ulcer, the result of the stress of leading Japan to a World Baseball Classic title. During the offseason, he rents an entire stadium in Kobe for his personal workouts.

Now 44, Ichiro is back with the Mariners after six years in New York and Miami. Age has dulled his skills, and as a part-time player last year he appeared in only 136 games, the fewest in his career. Still, he says he wants to play until he’s 50. Given his history, who would bet against it?

If you want to dive deeper into Japanese baseball history and culture, here’s a reading list:

You Gotta Have Wa Robert Whitting’s classic from 1989 is the seminal introduction to Japanese baseball, from an American writer reporter who spent decades in the country. Other Whiting books on Japanese baseball include The Chrysanthemum and the Bat (1977) and The Meaning of Ichiro (2004).

Kenichi Zenimura, Japanese American Baseball Pioneer Bill Staples unveils a hidden chapter in baseball history, the segregated California Nisei leagues, and how Zenimura built a 32-team league behind barbed wire at the Gila, Arizona internment camp during World War II

When Winter Never Ends Wright Thompson of ESPN Magazine profiles Ichiro at the end of his career as he contemplates the unthinkable: life without baseball</s>I’ve read a handful of 2018 season previews and here is what I can tell you. The Yankees will hit home runs, the Astros will win a boat load of games, the Red Sox are a lock for one of the AL Wild Card spot, the Angels aren’t, the Dodgers will be good and for some reason, the Nationals are a favorite to win the World Series (along with the Astros and the Yankees.)

Here’s the thing though, how are the Nationals a favorite to win the World Series? Dear God baseball people, have you not learned anything? The Nationals have been a favorite to win it all for the past few years and last I checked, they definitely haven’t. In fact, taking it a step further, the Nationals have lost in the National League Divisional Series in four of the last six years. The NLDS is not the World Series. It’s not even the NLCS, which is after the NLDS and before the World Series.

Picking the Nationals to win the World Series is like trying to get a dog to play fetch, only the dog has no desire to really play fetch. If you throw the ball, they’ll run after it. They might even start back in your direction with the ball in tow. But they won’t actually return the ball to you. They won’t actually fetch. They’ll just punk you. You’ll chase the dog down, wrestle the ball from their mouth and then throw it again, hoping this will be the time that they actually bring it back.But they won’t. They’ll never bring it back. Just like the Nationals of Washington D.C. will never win the World Series.

And I say never because their best player, Bryce Harper, is definitely skipping town once the season is over.

You had a good run, Nats. I like your uniforms. I respect that you have “Washington” on your away jerseys, even though it’s a long name. I wish the Phillies would do that. They don’t. It bothers me.

And hey, speaking of the Phillies, the Eagles’ neighbors are making noise as a trendy wild card pick. The upside of that is that they are being talked about positively, something that has been somewhat of a rarity in recent years. The downside is that the trendy wild card pick usually never pans out and is almost more of a curse than anything. Oh well. It’s not like Philadelphia is really going to notice. Not with the Super Bowl hangover still lingering and the Sixers headed for the playoffs. The Phillies have a built in pass this year. I guess that’s a good thing.

One of the things almost everyone can agree on is who will the American League MVP. It’s Mike Trout of the Angels. Of course, because this is baseball and baseball is slowly fading in terms of widespread popularity and devolving into largely a regional sport, you might not even know who Trout is.

He is really good at baseball. Like really good.

Problem is is that you might only know this if you happened across one of the many articles written by baseball scribes about his greatness. I’ve never seen Trout play, although to be fair, I, probably like you, really only watch baseball now when it’s my team playing or it’s the World Series. The Angels haven’t had much success when it comes to the playoffs and thanks to pesky time zones, Trout’s games start way past bed time here on the east coast. It’s a rough combination. I say we start a Kickstarter to get this Jersey boy on the Phillies and be done with it. Cool?

Elsewhere around the league, the Astros are a heavy favorite to repeat as champions. Yes, it makes total sense. They are bringing back the bulk of the team that won in 2017 and those dudes are mostly all still in their prime. If you were looking at a team that could possibly repeat, the Astros would be a safe bet.

But, how often does this actually happen? Teams repeating, regardless of the sport, rarely happen. The last team to repeat was the Miami Heat, who won the NBA Championship in 2012 and 2013. The same two teams have played in the finals for the last three years, the Cavaliers and the Warriors, and neither has won back to back championships. In the NFL, everyone thought the Seahawks were poised to start a dynastic run after they beat the Broncos. But then the next year they lost to the Patriots and since then, it’s only gotten worse. Their window has closed. Even the Patriots haven’t repeated as champs since the 2003 and 2004 seasons. In baseball, the last team to repeat were the Yankees, who won three years in a row, from 1998 to 2000.

So even though it looks like a safe bet that the Astros could repeat, history is definitely not on their side. Although I’m cool with them, based in large part to Jose Altuve’s stone cold response to President Trump when the team visited the White House earlier this year.

His eyes speak for a lot of us in that picture.

If the Astros don’t win, then yes, it is possible that the Yankees do and if the Yankees do, then everything really is terrible. I liked it better when the Yankees were supposed to be bad. That was fun. Although as a Red Sox fan, I have firmly taken the position that a good Yankees’ team is actually beneficial for the Sox. I have also firmly accepted that this is partially a form of rationalization, but it’s sports and sports is full of situations where you irrationally rationalize a great many things.

I’m not sure the Yankees will win, though. And no, I’m not just saying that because they’re the worst. I’m saying that because they had a lot of young dudes who had career years in 2017 and in turn, could be primed for a regression or two. Maybe pitchers have figured out how to pitch to Aaron Judge? Maybe Greg Bird is out for longer than expected? Maybe Giancarlo Stanton isn’t ready for prime time? Those are all possibilities. Plus it’s not like the Yankees’ pitching staff outside of their bullpen is rock solid.

Of course the Yankees currently have only the seventh highest payroll in baseball thanks to all of their young guns, so they’ll be in prime position to reload throughout the season if need be. That, more than what they have now, is what should scare people. Anyone can look good when a fight starts. What’s problematic is the people who get stronger later in the fight, which is what the Yankees could do.

You know, because the Yankees are the worst.

Well then, what will happen this season?

I’m happy you asked. What will happen this season? A lot of things. The baseball season is the length of forever. That’s a fact. People are primed to embark on a Marvel movie marathon before Avengers: Infinity War hits and even that is shorter than the baseball season. Players will get injured, players will either under-perform or over-perform. One team no one saw coming will crash the party in October and one team that everyone saw coming will shit the bed once the summer heat kicks in. Plus let’s be honest, the playoffs have been an exercise in momentum. The hot team usually wins. So therefore, it doesn’t matter how will a team starts off or looks in July. What matters is playing well in September and making it to the playoffs, then riding that hot hand all the way through the playoffs, into the World Series and to victory.

That’s also why I can’t get behind the Nationals. They looks great when it’s hot, yet they look they shells of themselves once the leaves start to fall, which is when it really matters. It’s also why no one who really follows the Red Sox is that hyped about the team. It’s not that they are returning basically the same squad as last year, but now with a dude who can actually hit home runs (J.D. Martinez.) It’s because they haven’t done a damn thing in the playoffs since winning the World Series in 2013. Until the Red Sox can actually win a postseason series, everyone is going to look at them with skepticism.

The regular season is fun and it’s enjoyable. Going to a baseball game, especially when the weather is nice, is always a quality experience. But when it comes to what really matters, when it comes to what will really happen this season, it all depends on how things shake down in September. Everything until then is just cupcakes and gravy. The meat and potatoes won’t be ready until football is back, you’re wearing a hoodie in the chilly fall evenings and the kids are back at school.

And Bryce Harper is that much closer to being a member of the Yankees.

Because the Yankees are the absolute worst.
The 2018 Major League Baseball season begins.