Following up on last week’s AL preview, let’s take a stroll through AAAA … err, I mean… the National League!

Baseball season is actually already underway… on the other side of the world. I’d be remiss to avoid mention of the opening. The A’s just split their two game series with the Red Sox in Japan behind a blazing performance from Mr. DL himself, Rich Harden. The Sox didn’t look World Champion-esque in these two games, squeezing out a victory yesterday that was handed on a silver platter to them by Huston Street and Emil Brown. Dice-K had one of his “the strike zone is not my friend” games and Papi straight up sucked. This morning Harden torched the vaunted Red Sox lineup, with only Manny touching him for a solo HR. Jon Lester didn’t look so hot, only lasting 4 innings and giving up 4 runs. If I were a Red Sox fan (eww, the mere thought repulses me), I’d be praying for a healthy Josh Beckett.

Ok, enough AL. Time to focus on the league where the pitchers bat and the managers actually do something. Where to begin…?

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To further rankle my fellow writer Brendan, a devout (and delusional) Boston sports fan, I think its appropriate to pull together a preview of the upcoming baseball season written by none other than this site’s own devout (and delusional) New York sports fan (ahem, Yankees and Giants… not Mets and Jets, ew).

I haven’t been this excited for baseball season in a long time. It could be leftover euphoria from the glorious run of the 2008 SUPER BOWL CHAMPION NEW YORK GIANTS. It could be that the Yankees have finally pushed aside their moronic tendency to overspend on crappy free agents. It could be that my adopted home team, the Washington Nationals, will be opening a killer new stadium and have a potentially great lineup.

Or it could be the chance to finally move on a bit from the crap that went down this offseason with the Mitchell Report and the Clemens hearing.

Regardless, I’m excited and you should be too.

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Phil Rizzuto may not have been the best ballplayer in his infield, let alone his team or the league, but he left an impact on a couple of generations of Yankees fans with his gritty play, folksy mannerisms, and goofy catchphrases. I know I grew up listening to The Scooter every summer. To me, Rizzuto’s voice meant Yankees baseball, like Mel Allen for my father. While I certainly wasn’t alive then, my dad would tell me stories about Rizzuto’s playing days, calling him “the definition of scrappy.” He was the player you loved to love. He is revered by Yankee fans for these reasons (and I’m sure many others).

You’ll be missed Phil.

New Yorkers showing why we’re the toughest SOBs around…

I just curled up under a bleacher and immediately there was a 30-person dog pile,” Murphy, 21, told the Daily News yesterday. “I kept yelling, ‘I got it! I got it! …Get the bleep off of me, get the bleep off of me!’”

A Mets fan and a Yankees fan will be splitting the dough they receive for Barry’s ball. I dunno about you Andrew, but that makes me feel just a little bit better.