The official sign of Spring

"I see great things in baseball. It's our game -- the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us."

-- Walt Whitman

Today is Opening Day in Major League Baseball. (Well, technically, baseball season began last night with the Yankees-Red Sox game.) And thank you to ESPN2 for showing the Detroit Tigers-Kansas City Royals game this afternoon. I'll tape the game and have a little Opening Day party with a beer and can of Spaghetti-O's tonight after class. I'm really excited about this year's team, though my mind is warning me not to get my hopes up.

Buster Olney of ESPN.com has ranked the 30 major league teams, a la college football. The Tigers are #19 on the list, which sounds about right. As much as I'd like to think otherwise, the 18 teams above them are probably better, give or take a couple.

Check out the Detroit Tiger Weblog for a season preview (along with a terrific interview with former Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell). Tigers Central and Most Valuable Network also have good looks at the 2005 team.

And here are the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News baseball previews. (I'm hoping my dad picks up the actual newspaper copies for me today.) Play ball, my friends - play ball.