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Ah, spring. Ah, baseball. Ah, Opening Day (capitalized, of course). There is nothing quite like the optimism that winning the first game of the season brings. Unless, perhaps, your team loses that contest — in which case you remind yourself that there are 161 more games to the regular season. And a team with an 0-1 record can win the World Series.
Amanda is the wife of new USC basketball coach Andy Enfield.
* Jeff Samardzija pitched eight innings (two hits, nine strikeouts) in the Chicago Cubs’ 3-1 victory at Pittsburgh, and Chris Sale went 7 2/3 innings (seven hits, seven strikeouts) in the Chicago White Sox’ 1-0 victory vs. the visiting Kansas City Royals. Compare and contrast. Or merely sit back and enjoy.
* The Cubs and Sox won on Opening Day for the first time since 2009 — when both teams won the World Series, right? Actually, the White Sox went 79-83 and finished third in the American League Central; the Cubs went 83-78 and finished second in the National League Central. Both teams finished 7.5 games behind the division winners (Minnesota in the AL and St. Louis in the NL). But, as they say in world of financial offerings: Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
* Well, as long as we’re at it, the website coolstandings.com has the Cubs with a 32 precent chance of reaching the postseason (19.7 to win the division, 12.3 as a wild card) and the White Sox with a 35.5 percent chance of reaching the postseason (22.5 for AL Central and 13.0 for wild card). Yeah, clip and save.
* What do statistics from spring training tell us? Whatever we want them to. Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who had no home runs in spring training, hit a two-run homer on the first regular-season pitch he saw. For the pessimists in the audience, Rizzo is hitless in his last three at-bats.
* Catcher Tyler Flowers hit a home run to account for the only run in the Sox game. Which should calm those Sox fans concerned/upset about the team not re-signing A.J. Pierzynski. Well, it should ease them for at least a day or two. Especially because the Sox are off Tuesday.
L.A.-bound: Amanda and Andy Enfield and their children.
* Andy Enfield, who coached Florida Gulf Coast University to a spot in the Sweet 16 in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, has been named coach at Southern Cal. So why a mention here? The editorial staff at elliottharris.com would like you to know that it is merely coincidental that his wife Amanda is a former supermodel, and we just happen to have an image or two of her. If that’s not a coincidence, then we just don’t know what possibly would be.
* Speaking of college basketball, Northwestern University introduces Chris Collins as its men’s coach on Tuesday at 11 a.m. No swimsuits or former supermodels are expected to be part of the coverage.
* Speaking of Northwestern, Wildcats women’s lacrosse coach Kelly Amonte Hiller is the latest subject for Comcast SportsNet’s “Inside Look” interview series Tuesday at 9 p.m. Her teams have won seven national titles in the last eight years. The show also is scheduled to be shown April 4 at 5 p.m., April 7 at 9:30 p.m., April 14 at 7:30 p.m. and April 28 at 3:30 p.m.
Speaking of Opening Day (as we were at the beginning of all this), here is some video from the Los Angeles Dodgers’ ceremonial first pitch:
This is where we go for non-gratuitous video — mainly because the editorial and video staffs at elliottharris.com don’t even know the meaning of “gratuitous” as well as numerous other words:
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