As Jackie sprinted from third to home, one could hear the ice cracking on the corn stalks from the friction of his feet on the chalk line that was now blazing like DeLorean tire tracks. Stealing time, he stole history, and the slow motion of the pitcher's windup looked stiff as a Kansas fence post. When Jackie went into his slide, the umpire dropped his jaw in bewilderment and tasted the upturned dust and dirt like a cyclone. We weren't in Kansas anymore. We weren't even in the same time continuum. The game we'd known, from its records and statistics to its faces and characters, was now on fire like a stack of Third Reich books. Baseball sprinted out of World War Two, not even bothering to look over its shoulder, and the taut muscle and sinew of the modern industrial complex sprawled through the rosters like suburban housing treks. Welcome to a world of Technicolor. The teams below are the authors of history, who play by their own rules, and not only shape the future but alter our memories of the past, so that we not only see the game differently but forget how absurdly quaint it once was:
Boston Red Sox
Key Additions: John Lackey (SP), Adrian Beltre (3B)
Key Losses: Jason Bay (LF)
Storyline to follow: The Sox have the pitching to beat anyone. The quandary is will they have the offense. It's also worth mentioning that the only doubt about whether they have enough offense is because they're in the same division as the Yankees and didn't quite replace Jason Bay's production.
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (California)
Key Additions: Hideki Matsui (DH/LF), Joel Pineiro (P)
Key Losses: John Lackey (SP), Chone Figgins (3B), Vladimir Guerrero (DH/OF)
Storyline to follow: The Angels are going for their sixth AL West title in seven years. As the Angels continue to win while losing more and more of their 2002 World Series nucleus, their consistency despite a changing cast of characters deserves the same amount of attention usually heaped on east coast ball clubs.
New York Yankees
Key Additions: Curtis Granderson (CF), Javier Vazquez (SP), Nick Johnson (1B)
Key Losses: Johnny Damon (LF), Melky Cabrera (OF), Hideki Matsui (DH/LF)
Storyline to follow: What other story is there other than the Yankees chasing another World Series title? It's the sitcom formula that every MLB season relies on carrying the night.
Philadelphia Phillies
Key Additions: Roy Halladay (SP), Placido Polanco (3B)
Key Losses: Cliff Lee (SP), Chan Ho Park (P), Pedro Martinez (SP), Pedro Feliz (3B)
Storyline to follow: At a glance, the Phils appear destined for another World Series; the Halladay move gave them that kind of offseason buzz, but they lost Cliff Lee in the process. Also, history is not on their side; World War Two was still being waged the last time an NL team won three pennants in a row. The Phils doing so will highly depend on which Jimmy Rollins shows up this year.
St. Louis Cardinals
Key Additions: Brad Penny (SP), Felipe Lopez (2B)
Key Losses: Joel Pineiro (P)
Storyline to follow: The Brad Penny resurrection is intriguing. Mark McGwire as the hitting coach begs for analysis. Will Tony LaRussa join Bobby Cox this year in farewell tour calls for our attention, but all of these storylines pale in importance to watching Albert Pujols be Albert Pujols.
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