(Almost) Opening Day Randomness

Various things I think I think:

• This article says the American League is strong and it's true. What's scary is that while the AL has won six of the past eight World Series, most folks forget that the only champs from the NL in that time are the Florida Marlins. And at this point, I'm not even sure that the NL is proud to call the Marlins their own.
• In that same story, Ozzie Guillen says this, "It's a different ballgame," says White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, who watched the NL closely as a coach with Montreal and Florida for three seasons before taking his current job in 2004. "People think that there is all of this difference in strategy. The only strategy is the double-switch. "In the American League, I can hit-and-run with my six, seven, eight and nine hitters, and I can bunt. In the National League, I can't move guys over there because the pitcher is batting behind them and what am I gonna do?" That's an interesting point, particularly for those of us who think all the strategy takes place in the NL. Maybe the DH isn't such a bad thing.
  Barry Bonds is everyone's favorite steroid whipping boy. I have a hard time getting all worked up about it, especially considering that the allegations in the hot new book come from: 1) an estranged ex-girlfriend, 2) illegally obtained grand jury documents, and 3) drug dealers and pseudo-scientists. Those of you who are familiar with baseball history will recall though that illegally obtained, leaked grand jury testimony was all that was needed to convict (if only in baseball's terms) the 8 men who were banned from baseball from the White Sox 1919 pennant winners.
• Home Depot says it doesn't want to participate in any promotional efforts celebrating Barry Bonds because of the steroid rumors and allegations. Home Depot (owned by the owner of the NFL's Falcons) instead prefers to put its money behind athletes who use pseudonyms and knowingly infect women with STDs.
• Are you familiar with the chain of restaurants known as The Rusty Pelican? For whatever reason, their website only features one Southern California location. Regardless, what is a rusty pelican? I didn't know that animals could become rusty. Should I be worried?
• My pet peeve: referring to the total value of a player's contract without referencing the length of the deal. Today I heard about a $50 million contract extension for David Ortiz. Now, if that's a 2 or 3-year deal, it's pretty expensive. If it's a 5 or 6-year deal, it's too cheap. The value of a contract doesn't make sense without talking about its duration.
• Only one new stadium (new Busch in St. Louis) and no new uniforms? That's kind of a blah start to the season. Yeah, the Nats have new alternate jerseys, but that's kind of minor. Edit: Oops - there will be more new things this year. I'm still not sold on those freaky helmets though.
• This is a great story. I wish they'd run it on the front page of every sports section everyday.
• If you don't cheer for George Mason this weekend, you have no soul. If you're cheering for the Gators to beat GMU, well... I will pray for the soul that you don't have.

I had a lot more, but I can't remember any of it right now. Oh well, maybe it will come back to me.