Skip to footer

Baseball Opening Day 2013: New faces in new places

Baseball Opening Day 2013: After an opening night game, Major League Baseball opens the 2013 season with 12 games Monday across the country.

|
Curtis Compton, Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP
The field is painted for opening day as Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez, left, throws batting practice at Turner Field on Sunday, March 31, 2013, in Atlanta. The Braves play their season opener against the Phillies on Monday.

For over 135 years, Opening Day in Major League Baseball has signified the end of winter and reignited hopes for baseball fans across the United States that this year could be the year for their favorite team.

Over the past 10+ years, Major League Baseball has chosen to start the season with a game the night before Opening Day and 2013 was no exception. The Texas Rangers lost to the Astros Sunday night as Houston begins its first season in the American League after 50 years in the National League.

As fans prepare for the new season, there are some familiar faces with new teams. Josh Hamilton finished his contract with the Texas Rangers and signed a multimillion dollar deal with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. There, he'll be paired with slugging first baseman Albert Pujols to create a powerful pair in the middle of the batting order. In one major change this year, the Angels will open the season today with an interleague game against the Cincinnati Reds of the National League. A sneak preview of the next World Series?

Two-time World Series-winning manager Terry Francona, formerly with the Boston Red Sox, now takes over the Cleveland Indians after a season in the ESPN broadcast booth.

The San Francisco Giants open the defense of their 2012 World Series championship Monday by playing their longtime rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who will have big money acquisitions Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Adrian Gonzalez, plus free agent pitcher Zack Greinke for an entire season.

In the American League, many experts are picking the Toronto Blue Jays to win the East Division and possibly go to the World Series. The Blue Jays acquired NL Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey from the New York Mets. They also traded for shortstop Jose Reyes, pitchers Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson, plus two other players from the Miami Marlins.

One of the first baseball games of the day will feature two more longtime rivals, the Red Sox in New York to face the Yankees at 1:05 p.m. Eastern time. The Yankees were swept by the Detroit Tigers in last year's American League Championship Series. But veteran left-handed pitcher Andy Pettitte says the Yanks will overcome age and injury and reach the postseason this fall.

"I don't let my mind go in that direction because I think we're going to win our division and I expect us to be in the World Series. Bottom line," Pettitte told ESPNNewYork.com.

Play ball!

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Baseball Opening Day 2013: New faces in new places
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Sports/2013/0401/Baseball-Opening-Day-2013-New-faces-in-new-places
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe