It's Opening Day!!!

The weeks of spring training have come to an end. The first game of the regular season took place last night [and featured a thrilling come-from-behind victory as the Boston Red Sox defeated the New York Yankees]. But today...TODAY...a full slate of baseball is headed your way. There's a variety of options available to keep up with today's games as well as the other 161 regular season games your favorite team will be playing.

The obvious is local radio and television. Throw in cable/satellite and you should have no problems listening to or watching your local team slug it out on the diamond.

But what if your favorite team isn't your local team. No problem. Major League Baseball will help you out, albeit for a fee.

Pay a visit to MLB's Media Center and you can purchase monthly and season passes for MLB.TV. This will allow you to watch games on your desktop or laptop. The Premium version offers a few perks that'll be well worth the extra few bucks for diehard baseball fans.

For those who want to just listen to the game you're in luck...and for much less than the MLB.TV option. At Bat with Gameday Audio allows you to listen to the home and away broadcasts for every game. You also get a slew of in-game information [box scores; pitch data; player analysis; etc.].

And finally, for those on-the-go types who don't want to have to be tethered to a desktop or laptop, you can listen to games right on many mobile phones. The At Bat 2010 app is available for iPhones, Android phones, and Blackberry phones among others. I have the app on my Android phone and it's well worth the fifteen bucks. The first time you're able to listen to a game while sitting at the airport waiting for your flight to board you'll know what I mean.

The first games of the season are just hours away!

Go Rangers!!!

Baseball's Return Draws Near

Pitchers and catchers report today!!!

Happy! Happy!!! Joy! Joy!!!

Say hello to Doug Mathis. Why is he smiling?

Well, it could be because Doug just had a huge burden lifted from his shoulders.

Doug is a relief pitcher for the Texas Rangers. As this is his

rookie year in the major leagues he was given a unique task by his teammates in the bullpen [described in this texasrangers.com article]:

Doug Mathis -- The Rookie

Mathis may just be a rookie, but he carries some of the biggest responsibilities.

He takes two bags with him to the bullpen every day. One is a pink Dora the Explorer bag filled with protein bars, snacks and other supplies needed to pass the time in the bullpen.

If he doesn't come through, Mathis will receive his fair share of grief.

"We were out of protein bars one day," Mathis said. "C.J. [Wilson] eats protein bars every game in about the fifth inning. One day I forgot to restock it, and I got yelled at. I like to stay on top of it."

Today Mathis passed on the Dora backpack to another rookie - Neftali Feliz.

Let me take this opportunity to say "Welcome to The Show, Neftali! I hope you enjoyed your first day. It was quite a day. I hope you'll be around for a long time!"

Here's a breakdown of Feliz's first day:

• Gets called up from the minors to take over the relief position created when Jason Grilli was placed on the Disabled List
• From the looks of this photo [sent out by teammate C.J. Wilson via Twitter] he has inherited the Dora backpack.

• Eric Nadel and Dave Barnett - the Rangers radio broadcasting team - gave listeners a quick tutorial on the proper pronunciation of Feliz's first name [the syllables are all evenly stressed (sort of like Ichiro's name): Nef-Tuh-Lee...not Nef-TALL-Ee]
• The aforementioned C.J. Wilson gives Feliz a nickname in another Twitter post:

  welcoming Mr. Happy to the bullpen, and the major leagues. Got to hang a bit with him in spring training

• Feliz is brought in to pitch in the sixth inning. He pitches two perfect innings including striking out the first four batters he faced [a fete that hasn't been achieved by a major leaguer in their first appearance sine 1962].

Not too shabby. Even though the Rangers went on to lose the game C.J. couldn't help but spotlight Feliz in one of his post-game tweets:

On a positive note the mr. Happy era has begun...feliz is fo real folks

Once again...Welcome Feliz! Please stay awhile

A Little History

It was sixteen years ago today that Robin Ventura became the only person in baseball history to get six hits off of Nolan Ryan in a single game.