The Super Bowl is Over and Baseball is Coming Back

The NFL has finished their season as the New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks 28-24 in Super Bowl 49. What makes me so happy when the Super Bowl comes around is not for the actual game (although I did partake in some buffalo wings and loved the Katy Perry halftime show), is that baseball is coming back very soon. All attention and focus should be on what’s important instead of being distracted by other sports: Baseball.

It’s February 1st, and it is now officially the month that Spring Training commences. We are only a little under three weeks away from

Katy Perry’s makeup and costumes highlighted a great halftime show at the Super Bowl. Photo:  Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

pitchers and catchers reporting to Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona. Real life baseballs will be caught and thrown. The long winter will begin to thaw.

There’s been a lot to digest this offseason as a Dodger fan. Not only did we have to try to cope with the NLDS loss to St. Louis, but we had to think about the San Francisco World Series victory this whole down time making me a depressed Dodger fan. We said goodbye to some long-time Dodger players like Matt Kemp and Dee Gordon who were traded away after the new front office regime took over. Much like the transitional offseason when we had to live through Frank McCourt’s messy divorce from his wife and the Dodgers, this offseason has been a period of flux and change under the new philosophies of Andrew Friedman, Farhan Zaidi and Gabe Kapler.

Uncertainty definitely remains with me after the sweeping changes to the roster. I’m still not 100% confident in the new lineup, bullpen or rotation, and I’m eager to see how the fresh outlook and inclusion of increased usage of advanced statistics translate on the field. Trading away once franchise player Matt Kemp to division rival San Diego was a bold move, and I’m hoping that the team will end up benefiting from that deal which wasn’t my favorite.

The backend of the rotation concerns me with Brett Anderson and Brandon McCarthy‘s injury histories. I’d like the Dodgers to lock up Zack Greinke and acquire another frontline starter like Cole Hamels. The bullpen is definitely improved, but then again how could they be worse than last season? I shouldn’t say that, because they could.

I’m still worried that the cable company debacle won’t be ironed out before Opening Day, and the stalemate continues to drag out indefinitely as Dodger fans miss more and more games.

I’m thrilled to know that Clayton Kershaw will be a Dodger for years to come. His time will come to reign supreme in the World Series, and I’m so grateful to watch him pitch and create beauty every five days. Kenley Jansen is often overlooked and undervalued, but I enjoy watching him dominant out of the bullpen for the Dodgers when the rest of his reliever mates were busy walking everyone and anyone.

I’m ecstatic to know that the Dodgers finally have a genuinely top tier prospect pipeline which includes Julio Urias, Corey Seager and Joc Pederson. With Kapler’s new vision when it comes to player development, I’m eager to see how the Dodgers draft in the future and how they can build on their player development system both domestically and internationally.

Vin Scully is returning to grace us with his wisdom and his exquisite voice. I could watch Joe Blanton pitch everyday as long as Vin was calling the game.

So we are done watching the Super Bowl, and we may be feeling a little tipsy. There has been a lot of double dipping in the guacamole, and the commercials gave little to laugh about. Yet the buzz is in the air. Baseball is coming back, and this is why Super Bowl Sunday marks the seasonal change from touchdowns to homeruns.

LA in 2015.