You might struggle to get tickets at Boston as they've sold out something like 633 home games in a row and against the Yankees will make it a lot tougher. All that said if you're prepared to pay over the odds you can get tickets there.



As for this year just some interesting stats I've happened across with my reading.



The Giants had four pitchers hit 33+ starts last year which has only happened 17 times since 1990 and has never been done back-to-back.



Bautista was the 25th player to hit 50 homers. The previous 24 averaged 45 homers the following year. He was the fourth hitter to top 50 after having less than 20 the year before. The previous three (Cecil Fielder, Brady Anderson, Greg Vaughn) averaged 36 the season after (they were during the juiced up era although I couldn't be sure as to whether Fielder was, think it was '91 or something for him).



Expecting R2C2 to all win at least 15 games and top 200 innings? Only one rotation has managed this during the wild card years and that's the 2003 Yankees which had Clemens, Mussina, Pettite and David Wells and was probably juiced up too.



The Yankees play 25 of their first 41 games against their top five opponents from last year ranked by OPS vs right-handed starters. The Yankees currently have one left-handed starter, Sabathia.



Last year Car-Go, at age 24, had 197h, 34hr, 117rbi, 143OPS+ which is similar to when 24 year old Jim Rice's 1978 AL MVP year of 206h, 39hr, 114rbi, 147OPS+. The following year, at age 25, Rice hit 213h, 46hr, 139rbi, 157OPS+.



This year Jay Bruce is entering his fourth season at age 24 and has hit .257, .474SLG, 110OPS+. During the same period Barry Bonds hit .258, .471SLG, 123OPS+. In his fourth year Bonds took a step back but then won an MVP award in his fifth year on the way to a four year run in which he averaged .310, .595SLG, 185OPS+. Unknown if it was the juice years or not.

Wouldn't be too disappointed if I couldn't, just thought it would be a decent experience. Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles are the two home games in early September. Can get tickets for $5 so that's what made it really appealing.



On a side note, I'm looking forward to watching your beloved Giants too. And Man Utd.

Its a great experience if you just relax and enjoy it. Don't get all fidgety like a lot of non-baseball UK viewers do. It is good if you go with someone aswell, when we went there were two guys behind us that were making bets on what would happen in the inning and it seemed to be a good idea. Also if you make it known to people around you that it is your first game they will give you tips and info about the game. Yanks are decent people!



Yanks v Jays could be a good game, the Orioles have improved too so you may have got some good games with HR heavy bats on show. Tickets for $5? For the Yankees? I'd suggest paying the little extra to perhaps be in the 2nd tier or maybe the bleachers, there should be okay/cold weather. I'd suggest not going to watch the Mets, for a few reasons.



Yanks v Sox tickets seem to be impossible to get without breaking the bank and mentioning that you are stationed in NY would get the locals a little restless but the experience would be amazing at Fenway.



Just enjoy it and do the whole experience of buying hot dogs from the vendors etc etc.

Thanks for the advice. Will take it all on board.





The $5 tickets were for the bleachers so will probably end up going for those.

Ash if you are in NY you could also go to a Mets game as there are 2 teams in NY not just the Yankees.

Baseball is the Yankees.

Roster all set.



C-Buster Posey

1B-Prince Fielder

2B-Martin Prado

3B-Adrian Beltre

SS-Derek J..eteeer

LF-Carl Crawford

CF-Chris Young

RF-Drew Stubbs

DH-Vlad Guerrero



Reserves-

Adam Jones

Juan Uribe

Jorge Posada

Carlos Lee

Sean Rodriguez

Aubrey Huff



Pitching-

1-Felix Hernandez

2-Cole Hamels

3-David Price

4-Colby Lewis

5-Jhoulys Chachin

Craig Kimbrel

Brandon Lyon

Fernando Rodney



Res-AJ Burnett

Nearly there. Are we excited kids?

I'll say especially with MLBTV which will mean I can watch the game live tomorrow. You saying this prompted me to thinking about how difficult it was finding out information on the Reds after I first started following them. It was '92 (nearly twenty years ago, which I can't believe) when I went to see a Reds home game and have been hooked more or less ever since.



After I returned home I tried to see if there were any Reds games on the Armed Forces Radio & Television Network but could hardly get anything. With no internet the only time I could read about the Reds was if I ever bought USA Today so I kind of couldn't follow it. Once the internet was here it was a lot easier to learn but even then it was no more than a passing glance to see how they were doing. Since MLB came onto Channel Five that was it. I was back checking up on things and this has grown with better broadband and finally the arrival of MLBTV three or so years ago. Could follow regularly and even watch games on a delayed cast. Brilliant stuff. Amazing game.



It's got me thinking of heading out there to try and catch the Reds for a road game e.g. New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Florida, Chicago, St Louis (have been to Cincinnati and it's not exciting enough to go back to just to watch a few games) either next for my 40th or the year after as a twenty year anniversary from my first watching a game.

Tigers @ Yankees 6pm ESPN America



Verlander v Sabathia

Not a bad start to the year there!



ITS BAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!

My team:



C- Matt Wieters

1B- Mitch Moreland

2B- Gordon Beckham

3B- Alex Rodriguez

SS- Elvis Andrus

OF- Ichiro Suzuki

OF- Jason Heyward

OF- Nick Swisher

DH- Jason Kubel

UTIL- Carlos Beltran

Bench: Markakis, Escobar, Fox, Jaso



Pitchers:



1. Roy Halladay

2.Josh Johnson

3.Clay Buchholz

4.CJ Wilson

5. James Shields



RP- Putz

RP- Bard

RP- Soriano



Bench: Jenks.