Even though the first was day officially in Japan and the first US game was yesterday, today feels like the real Opening Day (at least for fan bases who teams start today).

Is there a reason that MLB doesn't have all their teams play today? I understand the game yesterday (preview/event) and I can even see the reason for the Japan game (grow markets), but I don't understand why they make so many fan bases wait until tomorrow to start things off? If tomorrow the "real" opening day, then why have so many games today?

Anyway, go Braves!

Link to Pick'ems Post

The deadline to get your pick'ems in is the first pitch of the 1PM (10AM PST) games.

If you want to join in for the first week of Baseball Pick'ems, follow the link to place your picks. All the instructions are in the Pick'ems post. It takes a few minutes to select your picks, even less time if you flip a coin and choose at random!

If you're not sure about the game, or you missed it, then don't worry; you can always join up in the next week's Pick'ems.

Link to previous conversation

What do you guys want? Is there something in terms of a game where you can pick the winner of a select number of baseball games a week? How about an eliminator contest where the last person to have all their picks correct wins? Read the link, and here's a minor re-hash of what was already discussed:

1. Pick 15ish games a week, and make up weekly tabs from there. Which games, probably a couple high-profile matches, try to get every team to be repped once.

2. Monday-Sunday, pick a team. You can only pick a team once per year. That team has to go at least .500 during the week or you're out.

3. A combo eliminator/cumulative - in order to assure that everyone's not out by June, one could play it like ESPN where people keep playing along even if they got some wrong, or ... do it like traditional, if you miss you're out, but unlike the 1 wrong pick knockout, maybe pick 3 teams a week, and all 3 incorrect choices = yer out.

4. Instead of games, do 50-50s for various stats by week. Like player x and y in home runs, player w and player z in strikeouts, team s and team t in wins, etc.

To add to point 4, maybe run an over/under on certain stats, games, and the like. Cubs/Cards game, O/U 8.5 runs, or Josh Hamilton HRs for the week, O/U 2.5, for example.

If you want a running game for the year, speak up. If you have ideas or preferences for the game, speak up. If you want to organize it, speak up. We already have fsfwannabe interested in organization of the game. Whatever you do, don't stay silent if you're out there because the season starts in less than 10 days, and we still have enough time to organize. I think if there's at least 10 or so people interested, that wouldn't be a bad starting point for a fledgling game. And if you see it or get into it late, no problem, just it would be swell to hear from you on this.