Baseball's Opening Day Starts Earlier This Season
The Major League Baseball season gets underway Thursday. Major League Baseball moved Opening Day up to avoid playing World Series games in November.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Good morning.
TOM GOLDMAN: Hi.
MONTAGNE: Hi. So just 162 games until the playoffs, seems like the right time to ask for some predictions. What do you think? What teams are looking best going into the season?
GOLDMAN: Now, in the American League the big buzz is about Boston. They didn't make the playoffs last year, in large part because of injuries to key players. Now the Red Sox are healthy. On top of that, they signed two star players - outfielder Carl Crawford, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez. Their pitching is still really strong. The Sox are loaded.
MONTAGNE: And Tom, the San Francisco Giants snuck up on almost everyone last year. They ended up winning the World Series. And who would be that team that possibly might be sneaking up on everyone this year?
GOLDMAN: Yeah. Well, there's talk across the bay from San Francisco about the Oakland A's and their talented pitching staff. And then in Florida, there's some murmurs about the Marlins. They won the World Series in 1997, then disappeared from the playoffs, then reemerged in 2003, won the World Series again, then disappeared. So they may be due for their every six or seven year title.
MONTAGNE: There are two teams with uncertain ownership situations - the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers. What about those teams? I mean, obviously iconic teams in baseball.
GOLDMAN: And this past offseason the Mets didn't go after high priced players. So we could already be seeing the impact on an already troubled team.
MONTAGNE: And just a quick update on the Barry Bonds trial, which is under way up in San Francisco.
GOLDMAN: MONTAGNE; Tom, thanks very much.
GOLDMAN: You're welcome.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Tom Goldman.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, Host:
And now an update. We told you yesterday that political rivals India and Pakistan would meet on the cricket pitch. After only eight hours of play, India won the cricket World Cup semifinal by 29 runs. Now India plays Sri Lanka in the finals on Saturday, the first time both teams in the cricket World Cup final are from Asia.
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