Baseball & Dragons

Baseball is back!

After over 500 days of ZERO fans allowed in to watch Major League Baseball, the regular season began yesterday, and it was a blast! But before I dive fully into how my Angels and the West Coast teams performed, I did do a bit of further reading in The Rook to get back into the swing of things.

Mushrooms, and Dragons, and Traitors…oh my!

The Rook is really heating up now as Myfanwy and Shantay face off against a chanting, mildew-infested house in Bath and learn that one of the Chequay station leaders is behind the manifestation. We also, in chapter 23, get to see what it’s like when a dragon egg hatches in modern-day England. Hint…there are no knights in shining armor, but the Chequay would do Saint George proud.

MLB is Back!

It certainly seems like it’s been forever, but baseball was actually played in front of fans yesterday. More than a year of partial games with cardboard cutouts, less than half a season of ‘games that count’, and stupid fights between the players union and the owners are just a memory now.

Sure, the Dodgers won the World Series, but I wonder if that’ll have an asterisk attached to it like the one permanently hanging around the necks of the Houston Astros. At least the Dodgers did not cheat to get their championship – they only had to dominate for a fraction of a season.

Anyway, the West has sent 5 of the last 8 teams to the World Series and won 2 of them…let’s keep that trend up and see another West Coast Championship. Personally, I’d love to see my Angels take a 4–3 series victory against the San Diego Padres, but one can only dream.

West Coast Baseball

Things started out well for that potential outcome (an Angels – Padres World Series) yesterday, though, as both the Angels and Padres won their Opening Day game. It actually broke a streak for the Angels, who have been notoriously bad on Opening Day (preciously, they lost 7 in a row), but they managed to turn the tide and pick up their first victory right off the bat. Down 3–2 heading into the bottom of the 8th, the Angels managed to flip their fortunes, and the Rally Monkey was in full force with contributions from David Fletcher, Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, and Albert Pujols. With the first win under their belts, 4–3, I’m pretty happy with my team. Their comeback felt really good to watch, particularly coming against a team many have chosen to have good odds of making it to the playoffs.

Other good games in the West were the Padres comeback in the 7th to win 8–7 over the Diamondbacks, The reigning World Series Champs, Dodgers, lost to Colorado 8–5, Texas lost to KC 14–10, the Giants lost to Seattle 8–7, and the hated Astros beat Oakland 8–1. It was a full day of baseball, and I’m so glad it’s back!

Ramble 2021.02.04| Baseball & Dragons