Tagged: Cantu

Football Fever

Are you ready for some Football??? Week one is underway, and besides Fantasy Football, the Marlins players also have allegiances to certain teams. Being an Eagles fan, I already knew who the Eagles supporters in the clubhouse were: Brendan Donnelly and Dan Meyer. On the flip side, there are way too many Cowboy fans in there – Cody Ross, Bo Porter, and Brian Sanches. At least Burke Badenhop told me he strongly dislikes the Cowboys, though he doesn’t really have a favorite NFL team; I enjoyed hearing that.

Locally we only have two Dolphins fans in Gaby Sanchez and Jeff Urgelles. Ross Gload was caught wearing his Jets shirt today, and that won’t make the locals too happy I’m sure. But across the state, Chris Coghlan supports the Bucs – his favorite player was Derrick Brooks.

I did confirm today that Jeremy Hermida is indeed a Gator fan, though he grew up in Atlanta; he said it’s because of his parents and he was definitely the underdog in high school – most of his friends liked the Georgia Bulldogs of course. Back to the NFL – his team for that at least makes sense, the Atlanta Falcons.

Andrew Miller is a Jaguars fan – he had season tickets. But the other dominant team in the clubhouse was the Tennessee Titans believe it or not: Brett Carroll, Dan Uggla and Sean West. Meanwhile, Cameron Maybin pulls for the Carolina Panthers.

Over to the west coast, Tim Wood flies with the Cardinals, Nick Johnson’s a 49ers fan and Jorge Cantu likes da Raaaaiders.

A nice number of the guys in the clubhouse prefer soccer though, in their mind, the real football. I spoke with Rick VandenHurk about it a bit, and his favorite is the local team where he’s from, PSV Eindhoven. Apparently they’re number one in their conference right now. Last time he went to a game was January, and he had season tickets – still follows them on the Internet while he’s over here.

So there doesn’t seem to be too many rivalries in the clubhouse for NFL teams, besides the Eagles-Cowboys domination. And as I write this, both teams are winning in week one. Let’s see what happens Sunday night, November 8th when they faceoff.

Get off my Matzah!

Yes, I snapped at a friend of mine in the press box this morning when he tried to steal my matzah, but there’s a reason for that. He’s one of the guys I mentioned yesterday who’s not keeping Passover. I was lucky enough to have one of the security guards snag me a piece of matzah from a suite so I could have something with substance for breakfast. My friend proceeds to finish up his scone (NOT kosher for Passover) and tries to take a piece of matzah off my plate. Not OK.

If I am keeping the holiday, and can’t eat a scone let’s say, you leave the little food I am able to actually eat this week on my plate, thanks. Ok, I guess when you are deprived of certain foods for a few days you can get cranky.

Anyway, it’ll be easier to observe the rest of this week when the Marlins hit the road and I won’t have to be in the press box. 16 of their next 19 games are on the road though, that’s pretty rough on them. They head to Atlanta first, and hopefully Jorge Cantu’s left hand will heal in time for him be in the lineup on Tuesday.

He was scratched from today’s game and Wes Helms got his first start of the season. Also Baker was given the day off against lefty-ace Johan Santana, and Gigantore (Ronny Paulino) got the start at catcher, hitting in the 8-hole. Gigantore’s career average against lefties was .355 going into the game.

Speaking of impressive, that’s what Josh Johnson was today – he had a no hitter through the fifth – I’m still trying to figure out who jinxed him in the sixth. There were a whole lotta Easter Eggs on the scoreboard for JJ. He had retired 14 of his first 15 batters before Luis Castillo hit a single. Regardless, he pitched a complete game, the second of his career, giving up five hits, one earned run (in the ninth), and struck out seven.

On the flip side, Johan Santana wasn’t too shabby either, striking out 13 in seven innings. Good thing I have both starting pitchers on two different fantasy teams.

Now the Marlins offense produced just enough to get by, but my Jeremy Hermida radar is out. He went 1-2 today with a run and a double. He barely made it to 2nd base but I liked the effort (That’s what she said?). The stats aren’t that impressive, but I’ve been watching him because I really think it’s now or never for him, and though it’s a slow start after his notable spring, his average is slowly creeping in the right direction.

Another guy who’s had a slow start is Cody Ross. Everyone knows he’s my favorite player, so whenever he does well or poorly, I get about 17 texts or messages online about it. Two people mentioned to me today that you should be able to at least hit your weight in baseball, and then brought to my attention that Cody is not doing so. He’s in fact hitting MY weight. By the end of the game, his average dropped to what my weight will probably be after Passover, in the 90’s.