Meaningful March Games Begin On Tuesday

For all you diehard baseball fans, spring training games start this Tuesday March 2nd.  The Mets will play the Braves at 1:10PM and the game will be televised on both SNY and MLBN.  No less than seventeen Mets spring training games will be televised locally in New York.  The long winter of discontent among Mets fans will be ending. 

Of course winning and losing these games is not meaningful.  But the games are still important.  We fans get to evaluate the players and see how they progress as the regular season approaches.  Is Johan Santana healthy and throwing 93MPH again?  There are so many questions about the other starting pitchers too.  Can Mike Pelfrey, and Oliver Perez rebound from poor 2009 seasons?  Will John Maine be healthy and finally come into his own. 

We will also get to see for the first time, our newest star left fielder Jason Bay.  We are counting on Jason to hit at least 30 home runs this season.  But Reyes, Wright, Beltan, and Francoeur must also step up big time.  Only then can the chemistry and camaraderie develop and grow which will enable this team to succeed.

It's hard to believe that all MLB teams play about 30 exhibition games prior to playing 162 regular season games.  That's a lot of games.  But for the diehard fan, it doesn't matter.  The more the merrier.