March 31, 2013

Opening Night in Baseball: Major League Baseball is kicking off its 2013 season tonight with the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros meeting for the first time as American League West division rivals. The Astros were moved from the National League Central during the offseason and face a tough task with the Rangers, Oakland A's and Los Angeles Angels all potential playoff contenders. The game is being broadcast on ESPN.

posted by rcade to baseball at 03:07 PM - 5 comments

Does everyone know what today is? Today is the day that the Cubs are in first place!!

Kinds sad knowing the Astros will not be playing in the central any longer. Looking forward to watching this new rival tonight.

posted by skydivemom at 03:25 PM on March 31, 2013

Why aren't the defending World Series champs playing the first game? Now that Cincinnati no longer plays the first game every year, shouldn't MLB try and get some extra juice?

posted by billsaysthis at 08:59 PM on March 31, 2013

Still think moving Houston to the AL was/is a mistake.

Texas ought to have one team in each league. They should have moved San Diego to the AL, then moved Houston to the NL West.

posted by beaverboard at 09:20 PM on March 31, 2013

I can't blame Astros fans for not liking it because they prefer National League baseball.

But as a Rangers fan I like having the Astros as a division foe. Texas has been playing divisional opponents two timezones away from them forever. The closest foe in the old AL West was Kansas City, which is 550 miles away from DFW. Houston and Texas are a 3-4 hour drive from each other.

posted by rcade at 09:49 PM on March 31, 2013

I had thought that the oft-discussed increase in interleague play would pit those two clubs against each other frequently enough to sweeten and sustain their rivalry if they remained in separate leagues. Not as much as if they were divisional rivals in the same league, but still enough to kick things up a notch.

Plus, if the Astros and Rangers had ever gotten to the World Series as the NL and AL pennant winners*, you can imagine the Lone Star state of mind that would have ensued.

* in our lifetime

posted by beaverboard at 12:39 AM on April 01, 2013

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