Taking a Super Bowl handoff – and running with it

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090201&content_id=3790698&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Millions of baseball fans at MLB.com
are football fans, too, and I liveblogged the Super Bowl from pregame
to postgame on the MLB.com homepage. Thank you to MLBlogs friends here
who joined me on the comments there! Let’s just say the ladies took
over — and if you want to know how far American football culture has
come, just witness that.<p>

The Super Bowl is not only a
great time for the typical fan, but it also marks that ultimate
transition from wintertime to the pastime. It’s our turn after the
clock runs out, and that’s what the liveblogging will be all about. We
do this every year, but this was the first time we did it in a liveblog
format a la MLB Network launch.

Thanks to our special guests,
club presidents Derrick Hall of the DBacks and Frank Coonelly of the
Pirates, for joining us during the game. Their comments said it all:
Baseball is there for affordable entertainment in any economy, a
much-needed salve. And who knows, maybe the Pirates can celebrate the
30th anniversary of their last World Series title by doing what they
did back then — immediately following (and preceding!) a Steelers
championship.

No? You haven’t been paying attention to the Majors this decade if you’re in the “no” camp.

I
was the only one on Earth in 2007 who picked the Rockies to go to the
World Series. They did. You could argue that those Rockies and the 2008
Rays had the foundation in place and the Pirates don’t. But that would
assume you are using logic.

Logic doesn’t mean a whole lot in the rollout of baseball champs these days.

Indians
fans, your equipment trucks are out on the road, since Friday was Truck
Day at Progressive Field and they’re bound for Arizona. Red Sox fans,
your Truck Day is this coming Friday. Big rigs are headed for the
interstate to Spring Training, filled with goodies like bats and balls
and uniforms and groundskeeping equipment and all those things that
rock our world. Red Sox Truck Day is this coming Friday. You can feel
it now! My Sure Signs of Spring article also is on the MLB.com homepage. What are your sure signs of spring?

For the record, I picked Kurt Warner and the Cardinals
to win, 33-28. I don’t hate my pick. What an incredible Super Bowl. Get
ready for an incredible year in baseball.

– Mark