Baseball is Back

And this time, it counts.

The Church of Baseball is back in business.

The A's will open their season today against Miguel Tejada and the Orioles in Baltimore later today. Barry Zito will take the mound. I am so looking forward to being glued to a computer screen at a computer lab at school killing time between classes while following the A's game.

To go back to a previous topic, I've been talking about humidity and splitter recently, I'd like to point out that Danny Haren's last spring start, in San Francisco, was excellent and read what the papers have to say about it:

Briefly: No. 3 starter Dan Haren followed two awful performances (15 earned runs in nine innings) with a terrific spring finale. He went six innings and allowed just two hits and one run, a homer by Marquis Grissom, while walking one and striking out six. Haren said the difference was that he was ahead in the count, going right after hitters instead of nibbling. He also had a better split-finger working, getting three or four strikeouts on it. ...(empahsis mine) -SF Chronicle 4/3/05

Hmmm...Once Haren come to the less arid climate of the Bay Area his splitter starts working again. Haren did well, so did Yabu, two pitchers who rely in the split.

The home opener will be a week from today, you can expect me there.