Baseball!

I don't have anything useful to say about poker. The play has been decent, and I'm glad there's a new month of blackjack bonuses to help pad the ol' bankroll. Someone e-mailed me a while ago, and one of the questions he asked was about how much time I spent and how much I wagered. I responded that I like playing multihanded -- the swings aren't much worse by making those extra bets, and it sure does take much less time to clear.

Sunday was Opening Day of another great baseball season. There's always a controversy, but there's a lot of other fun stuff going on as well. I don't dwell on the steroids issue because to me, it's old news. Opening Day is the beginning of a long summer. It means good times have arrived and winter won't come back until the last out of the World Series.

I hung out with some Philadelphia fans this weekend. They're cool people, but I can't stand the way Phillies fans are such assholes to everyone else. It's like talking to a fifth grader. They say, "Well, if you don't like the Phillies, then stay the hell out of Philadelphia." Or, "I love the Phillies, but how about Donovan McNabb?" Or, "Screw the Phils. They suck."

It's just a bad attitude that isn't good sportsmanship for their opponents or themselves. I hope they never win.

But Jimmy Rollins is exciting. He's continuing his 36-game hitting streak from the end of last season in pursuit of Joe DiMaggio's 56-game record. I doubt Rollins will get there because it's a very hard record to break and Rollins has a long way to go, but it would be cool if he could even come close.

The most exciting thing about the beginning of the season is that it seems like more teams than usual have a chance to win. Even the worst teams seem to have a bunch of young players that will be around for a long time.

Barry Bonds chase of the home run record will be interesting. He only needs seven homers to break Babe Ruth's record, and then he would need 40 more to tie Hank Aaron's 755. I don't like Bonds any more than the next guy, but I respect him as one of the best baseball players ever, with or without steroids.

To me, Bonds symbolizes the super-sized, home-run happy 90s. It was a silly but fun era where chicks digged the long ball and baseball fans hoped for a rare pitching duel.

As Bonds ages and approaches the home run records, his generation is quickly retiring. There are more new faces this year than I've seen in a long time, and they'll be a lot of fun.

Palmeiro, Sosa, Boone, Grissom, Leiter, Henderson and others are gone. Felix Hernandez, Liriano, Marte, Francoeur, Howard, Young, Kendrick and Cain are just getting here.