Batter up…

Tomorrow is Opening Day of the 2014 Major League Baseball season For the New York Yankees. The official start is today with 13 games on deck.

This will be Derek Jeter’s farewell tour. He  starts at short stop for the last time in his illustrious 20 year career. He turns 40 in June. I am hoping it is a World Series finale, although the baseball Gods are predicting a third place finish for the Bronx Bombers with the Tampa Bay Rays winning the division followed by the World Champion, Boston Red Sox…we’ll see.

Yankees ace, CC Sabathia, will be the starting pitcher tomorrow against the Houston Astros in Texas…you can barely CC him, he has lost 40 pounds in the past year.

The Yankee infield has a new look. Beyond Jeter and Mark Teixeira, second base has a new/old look with former Baltimore Orioles great, Brian Roberts taking money grubbing deserter, Robinson Cano’s, place.

Third base is now steroid and trauma free with former Tampa Bay Rays, Kelly Johnson at 3rd in place of suspended egomaniac, Alex Rodriguez. There s also a new catcher, Brian McCann who the team is calling the second coming of Thurman Munson, the great Yankee catcher who died tragically in 1979 while practice landing his Cessna airplane.

Brett Gardner is in the outfield along with new acquired, former Boston Red Sox, Jacoby Ellsbury, the only good looking member of the Red Sox (what a butt ugly team) and Carlos Beltran in right field. Alfonso Soriano will be the designated hitter.

I now have 162 opportunities over approximately 180 days to either maintain a natural high or spend my days striking out.

I signed up for the MLB package on DIRECTV so that is one less pair of shoes this season, but the rewards outweigh the deprivation.

I can’t wait to get to the hallowed halls of Yankee Stadium and hear the chant of “Beer, here” and have bags of peanuts whizzing by my face.

Every year I start the season optimistic that the cameramen have matured enough to not show the players adjusting their crotch cups, spitting sunflower seeds and picking their nose. The beauty of televised football is things move to quickly to have the players preoccupied with these bodily functions and manipulations.

I am a bipolar New York baseball fan. I am hopelessly devoted to the Yankees, but I also root for the Mets, except during the Subway Series.

I have had a more personal relationship with the Mets. When I was a teenager, I would babysit for Tom Seaver’s kids and then Tom discovered my passion for sports and I moved into the big leagues and accompanied his lovely wife, Nancy, to Met games.

As I kid I went to a plethora of Mets games with my dad and I was obsessed with Choo Choo Coleman (nickname because he was fast)…no rhyme or reason for my Choo Choo infatuation. In later years, I loved to witness my pal, Bobby Valentine, ranting and gyrating in the dugout during his tenure as Mets manager.

Courtny and I have shared many innings together at home and at Yankee Stadium. Yankee players who I have taken care of during the US Open, have been generous enough to give me their seats…now that is an up close and personal experience that was a sure winner. I once traded a meet and greet with John McEnroe for amazing play off tickets. What is a publicist if she is not an opportunist!

Go Yankees…here’s hoping the 2014 first pitch by CC Sabathia alleviates the pain of Syracuse not being in the NCAA Final Four. Take me out…