Most of my sports attention this weekend has been focused on the NFL Draft.  It’s where college football meets pro football.  My two true favorite sports.

But that’s not to say I forgot about my 3rd favorite, good ol’ baseball.  Today has been a great day for baseball on the radio as I’ve been able to hog the computer a little.

I started with Pirates at Padres on the San Diego feed.  Really am starting to enjoy their broadcasts.  When that dud ended, I loved over to Giants at Diamondbacks on the KNBR feed out of San Fran.  This is one of the better listens too.  But since it is Sunday, announcer Jon Miller is tending to his ESPN duties and not behind the mic.  The game was good, however, as it went 12 innings and ended with an Arizona win.  Now I’m finishing up my listening day with Yankees at Red Sox on the New York feed.  Boston has put on a hurtin’ on New York so far and the Yanks need this one badly.

But I think I’ll be bailing soon.  It’s also the ESPN game.  And I’m starting to get hungry too.  Dinner beckons me more than baseball right now.

I started with the Yankees-A’s game but quickly grew disinterested with all the HR’s.  I think they’re up to 5 in that game and Yankee fans are realizing they have a big problem with this new bandbox.  Don’t expect great number for that big investment in Sabathia.  Serves them right for cheating the tax payers and building a $1.5 billion stadium when other teams have built beauties recently for 20% of that.

So I moved over to the Marlins-Pirates game via the Miami feed.  Our local sports station in SW Florida used to carry Marlins games but now runs the Rays games instead.  The Marlins are losing again.  This would be three in a row and certainly serve to temper some of the enthusiasm after their 10-1 start.  But the Pirates seem to be decent this year.  But time could certainly change that, as it inevitably does every year. 

However, there seems to be a real chance that in the next couple of seasons, the Pirates, Royals, and Orioles will all have competitive, if not outright good, teams.  That would be a welcome change.  I personally love parity in sports and would like to see that trend continue in baseball, as it has flourished in the NFL.

It’s Patriot’s Day in Boston, whatever that means.  I’m pretty sure it doesn’t involve Tom Brady, which is welcomed news.  Instead the Red Sox are playing a late morning baseball game to keep their sacred tradition alive.  Their opponent is the Orioles and the Red Sox seem to be in control as I listen to the WEEI home feed.  The Red Sox announcers are decent.  I’ll reserve judgment, however, till I take in a more exciting game.

Random note: the Florida Marlins are the best team in baseball with a 10-1 record.  Could it be another magical year for a Florida baseball team?  The Marlins, yet again, have done everything right to build a contending team.  Go Fish!

Listening to Dodgers-Rockies, my first Dodger game of the year via the KABC feed.  What a great listen!  Announcers Charlie Steiner and Rick Monday may be the best team I have found yet, but it’s early.

Steiner, formerly of ESPN, has a rich deep voice.  He carries the broadcast and actually allows for some brief pauses between sentences for crowd noise.  Monday is a former Dodger and he seems to be very competent at the color commentary.

I’m also enjoying hearing the commercial breaks.  I said just the opposite the other day during the Cubs game.  But that’s why the variety of MLB audio is so great.  In this case, like the Southern California themed commercials because they’re so foreign to me.  Now I’ll have to find out exactly what is Farmer John’s!

Listening to the Yankees again on the WCBS feed.  Yankees-Indians and the Cubs are the only day games on this Friday.  Best part of this game so far is that the home Yankees have it 3 HR’s.  So I’ve gotten to hear a few of the John Sterling legendary HR calls.

“Mark Texiera send a Tex message.”

“A Johnny Rocket from Johnny Damon.”

“The Melk Man delivers.”

Listening to home broadcast of Cubs-Rockies from Wrigley.  The two Cubbies announcers are pretty good.  Only voice I know is the color guy who is former Cub 3B Ron Santo.  Play by play man has a real deep, radio type voice.

Cubs are losing but the broadcasters are giddily talking on air with Michael J. Fox.  Fox is at the game to film a piece for ABC News about optimism in the face of hard times.  Very appropriate for Cubs fans.  Fox seems to have a pretty decent knowledge of the game.

Side note — the MLB feed isn’t airing WGN’s commercials.  Instead of silence, however, we hear an open mic at the stadium.  You can hear the PA announcer and the hum of the crowd.  Pretty cool.  I prefer that to commercials any day!

Now I’m listening to the 9th inning of the Rays-Red Sox game on the Boston feed.  Rays up by 1 with a shaky Troy Percival trying to preserve the win for Matt Garza, who just happens to be on my fantasy baseball team.  Red Sox announcers seem kinda dry.  But they’re ok.  Go Rays!