Opening Day II

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Happy New Year! That is how baseball people welcome in a new season.

Even to the Nerds, Happy New Year; hopefully they learn some real baseball in 2025.

The season kicks off in earnest Thursday with Opening Day II. Yes, it is all a bit confusing but that is simply a baseball way of life under Commissioner Rob Manfred as MLB chases every last dollar. Opening Day was a while back when the Dodgers faced the Cubs in Japan.

Here we are with what I like to call the ROD, Real Opening Day, Opening Day II, if you will.

And yes, the ABS Challenge System was in play throughout most games in spring training, getting everyone used to players being able to challenge ball-strike calls, but forget all that. That’s gone for now, so it will be fun to see the first batter who questions a strike call and reacts by tapping his helmet in the challenge sign only to realize the rules have changed from spring training to ROD.

Even though the system will not be in use in 2025, I’m here for batters still tapping helmets all year long when they disagree with a call just to make a point. That will be a fun little addition to the game and hopefully umpires will have a sense of humor about it. I’m also hoping umpires all develop an even a more impactful third strike call, a la former umpire Dale Scott just to show the batters who is in charge behind the plate, a real umpire, not ABS, at least for another season.

You can be sure, like always, Yankee manager Aaron Boone will be chirping from the top step of the dugout on calls he is not thrilled with because that’s his way.

You can be sure, like always, Yankee manager Aaron Boone will be chirping from the top step of the dugout on calls he is not thrilled with because that’s his way.

Of course, I would love to see an ump counter a Boone complaint with, “Hey Aaron, tell me again why you took out Luke Weaver who got five outs on 19 pitches in that Game 1 of the World Series and why you elected to go with Jake Cousins and then Nasty Nestor Cortes, who had not been nasty in five weeks?’’

But that’s just me.

Unfortunately, and I totally understand why, umpires are not as combative as they once were, it’s the new “Be Kind’’ era of baseball when everybody is everybody’s buddy. I miss the days of good old fashioned baseball arguments where anything goes.

I also miss hard slides into second base, hit-and-runs, stolen bases of 90 feet without pizza boxes as bases with no limit on tosses over to first base, collisions at home plate, multiple-out Goose Gossage-like saves, starting staffs that were not decimated by Tommy John surgeries, pitchers with Greg Maddux-like command, pitching coaches who didn’t talk with their hands over their mouths and actually knew about the mechanics of pitching – not the metrics of pitching, and let me add, pitching coaches who also acted as confidence building psychologists and yet, were never afraid to kick a pitcher verbally in the butt when needed.

Pat Dobson was such a pitching coach and a favorite of mine. His sparring with Eric Show was legendary. Dobson once said that for Show to succeed “the moons of Remulak’’ must be aligned.  Show did manage to win 101 career games.

You don’t get quotes like that from the current crop of metric-based pitching coaches anymore, if they are even allowed to speak to the media these days. The control freak front offices want to control the words coming out of the coaches’ mouths, too. No individuality allowed.

Dobson, affectionately known as Dobber, went on to work for the great Brian Sabean and the Giants after his Padres days. He died in 2006. In 1971 Dobson was part of the Orioles Big Four, along with Jim Palmer, Dave McNally and Mike Cuellar. All four were 20-game winners. We will never see that again with the way starting pitching is handled in this era. Dobson won nine straight games that season and finished with a 20-8 record and a 2.90 era.

Show, you’ll remember, surrendered Pete Rose’s 4192nd hit and then promptly sat on the mound like a spoiled child as the Cincinnati crowd celebrated Rose passing Ty Cobb to become baseball all-time hits leader. On March 15, 1994, Show died at a drug rehabilitation center in Dulzura, California. He was only 37.

Yes, it is all a much different era and game now. For those thinking that Arizona ace Corbin Burnes would start the Diamondbacks first game, that is not happening because of a scheduling snafu. Burnes signed a six-year, $210 million contract with the D-Backs but will be the fifth starter, not the first starter when the season starts. Evidently, the Diamondbacks and Burnes had a failure to communicate. Burnes has a very, very, very specific schedule and as MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert explained, the decision to start Burnes or Zac Gallen dragged on and manager Tory Lovullo made the decision so late, probably with the aid of his analytics department, I may note, that Burnes could not adjust his very, very, very specific schedule.

All I can say is wow. Teams I’ve covered through the years pretty much knew who was starting on Opening Day on the opening day of spring training, especially when a team shells out $210 million for a starter. All the pitching coaches and managers I knew were precise planners. Something went wrong between Burnes, Lovullo and pitching coach Brian Kaplan. Kaplan had been with the Phillies as the assistant pitching coach and director of pitching and from 2019-21 he was an “integrative baseball performance consultant’’ with the Phillies. Interesting.

Certainly, signing Burnes will improve the D-Backs starting rotation. In the entertaining words of Pat Dobson, you could say the moons of Remulak were not aligned in this particular situation for Burnes to be Opening Day starter for Arizona.

This is a much different MLB than the one I covered for decades. A lot more people and algorithms are involved in baseball decisions and especially pitching decisions.

Velo and spin rule the day.

So instead of facing the Cubs, Burnes gets the Yankees on Tuesday April 1 at Yankee Stadium. Burnes is 0-2 lifetime vs. the Yankees but in 19 innings pitched against them, he has allowed only three runs.

A former major league pitching coach told BallNine of the D-Backs snafu, “My question is does their new pitching coach have any input on what happens with the pitching? I would think that their fired pitching coach Brent Strom would have known what to do. After all who gets blamed when the pitching isn’t good? The pitching coach of course.’’

Legit questions for sure.

You might think that the most interesting Opening Day matchup is the Tigers at the Dodgers with AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal taking on the World Champs, but technically, and remember we live in Rob Manfred’s Baseball World, this is not Opening Day for the 2-0 Dodgers. That happened in the Tokyo Dome. This is Game 3.

So, to me, the most interesting game, not matchup, but game is actually Opening Day III when the Rockies open up against the Rays on Friday at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. The two teams don’t play on Thursday, Opening Day II.

I am fascinated by how George M. Steinbrenner Field will play in the regular season now that the Tampa Bay Rays are finally going to be playing in Tampa since the Trop got destroyed. This will be one heck of a baseball science project with the Rays playing outdoors at home in a minor league ballpark with a Yankee Stadium short porch where the ball will definitely travel. Last season the Rays hit the third fewest home runs in baseball, only 147. Only the Nationals and putrid White Sox were worse. The Yankees hit 90 home runs more than the powder puff Rays. Only the White Sox (507) scored fewer runs than the Rays (604).

The D-Backs led baseball with 886 runs while the World Champion Dodgers were next at 842 followed by the Yankees’ 815. The Rays may have an offense this year, at least at home. And that could make the AL East even more interesting.

Will the Yankees spring training ballpark turn into such a positive for the Rays offense that it somehow enables the frugal Rays to beat out the monster payroll Yankees in the AL East? That would be something, right Hal Steinbrenner?

There are also pitching pitfalls for the Rays to consider. The Florida heat of summer and frequent thunderstorms could really upset the pitching plans of the Rays, who have always had the advantage of no rainouts, no stoppages of play and a perfect 72 degrees with no wind playing baseball at home. My key advice to Rays fans is buy a good poncho.

One longtime talent evaluator told BallNine, “The ball carries at Steinbrenner Field and I will say the Rays pitching will not be as dominant, not having that controlled environment, no humidity, no wind, no heat. It will be interesting to see how they handle all that.’’

There will be the energy-zapping heat. But there will be full houses because the ballparks are so small, that may help energy levels for the Rays and A’s, who will be playing in Sacramento. Both teams are used to playing in front of empty seats.

“It’s going to be an interesting season,’’ the evaluator added. “We will have two teams playing in minor league ballparks, it kind of makes you laugh sometimes where we are at.’’

Yes it does.

The increasing pitching injuries are no laughing matter. Just look at teams that were supposed to have aces start Game 1, but those aces are injured. The Yankees lost Gerrit Cole to Tommy John surgery, the Rays will not have Shane McClanahan start Game 1. He has already had two Tommy John surgeries, and the Rays are holding their breath with this latest nerve irritation situation for McClanahan.

And finally, let’s end on a positive note, congratulations to MLB’s First Family of Broadcasting, the Caray Family. Legend Harry Caray broadcast his first major league game in 1945 for the St. Louis Browns and every year since the Caray family has been in the booth.

“For our family that’s 80 straight years of broadcasting,’’ Chip Caray proudly told BallNine. Chip will broadcast the Cardinals opener against the Twins on Thursday.

Eighty years straight of Caray Family broadcasting MLB. What a wonderful accomplishment. Chip’s dad Skip Caray was the longtime announcer for the Braves. This season marks a Caray Doubleheader as Chip’s son Chris will be broadcasting the A’s opener vs. the Mariners in Seattle.

Once again, a remarkable 80-years, and counting, family MLB broadcasting streak.

Now, that is a record that will never be broken.