Baseballs Back!!!! By: Conner Healy

Every year this time of the year in the sports world there isn't a lot of action. Football has ended with the Kansas City Chiefs beating the San Francisco 49ers to take home the Lombardi Trophy. The NBA is in the middle of their season and takes a two week break during February for allstar weekend which featured many stars and events, and March Madness doesn't start for another month. But for baseball it is very exciting with pitchers and catchers reporting to training camp the second week of february and spring training games starting shortly after.

For anyone who is not a sports enthusiast, Spring Training in baseball is when the players report to their designated camp, (Florida or Arizona depending on facility location) practice and play "scrimmages" as these games they play don't matter in the actual season. Even though these games don't technically matter it is a good time for players to get back in the swing of things and get ready for the long season ahead. Spring training is also good for players who want to prove to themselves and gain a last roster spot on their team before the season begins. With this being said, the rosters for these games change everyday and most of the time players that start don't end up playing the whole game. As for pitchers who don't play every game during the regular season will only get a couple starts and only pitch a couple innings.

This year all eyes will be on the Houston Astros to see if they can win without cheating. Yes, you heard that right, cheating! In 2017 and 2018 the Houston Astros were found to be cheating and stealing other teams signs in baseball. The Astros won the World Series in 2017 so everyone in all of sports is calling the 2017 World Series tainted or not valid due to the sign stealing that took place the whole season, the playoffs and the World Series itself. Sign stealing has been apart of baseball forever but has been done legally. When I say legally I mean when there is a runner on second base the runner can look in at the catcher's signs he relays to the pitcher and can give the hitter a signal to let the hitter know what is coming. But the Astros took it to a whole new level, they installed a camera in center field in their stadium that they only had access to and zoomed in on opposing catchers signals and then banged on a trash can to let their hitter know what was coming. For example, 1 bang was for a changeup, 2 bangs was for a curveball/slider and no bangs was for a fastball. With knowing this, the hitter has a HUGE advantage to hit the ball because they know how fast the pitch is being thrown and the spin on the ball. The Astros have also been accused of having buzzers on their players this past season to buzz them and let them know what pitch is coming, this isn't confirmed to be true but their are a lot of evidence against them and the fans knowing they cheated the two year prior to last season don't buy their poor excuses they continue to give. The baseball world is furious with the Astros and they will be booed everywhere they go this season and players will intentionally throw at them because the players from other teams are very upset that they got cheated on.

Well enough with the cheating. Other teams such as the New York Yankees have high expectations this season as they are favorites to win the World Series this year and anything short of a title will be considered a failure. This off-season the Yankees signed arguably the best pitcher in baseball with Gerrit Cole. Gerrit had a career year last year with an ERA (earned run average) of 2.50 which was top 5 in baseball, finished runner up of the CY Young award (which many people think he was robbed of), had 326 total strikeouts (which is the highest by active players), and broke the record for most consecutive starts with double digit strikeouts. He and the rest of the Bronx Bombers will look to bounce back after falling short last year in the ALCS to head back to the fall classic and bring home a title.

This season is sure to be a great one with Spring Training getting underway, seeing what will happen to the Houston Astros with the backlash they will get from opposing fans at away stadiums and their players with getting shown no respect by other players, to the Yankees being World Series favorites. Even with injuries that will plaque players throughout the year and the close losses that will happen I can't wait for opening day on March 26th, and to see how the season turns out and which players will break out this year and stand out from the rest.