Off-season blues got you down? Don’t worry; Spring Training will be here before you know it. Until then, what are some of the things you can look forward to this off-season?
The biggest story will be who wins the Johan Santana sweepstakes. Will it be the Boston Red Sox or the New York Yankees? How about the LA Angels? What about the National League teams? Will any of the big spenders from the NL try to woo Santana to another league? Will teams like the Atlanta Braves or New York Mets get involved with on of the most prized pitchers in all of baseball?
One thing’s for sure, whoever gets Santana, no matter how much it costs, will be the benefit of a major love-fest from the fans, making that team’s baseball tickets even harder to come by.
There are other transactions fans should be aware of as well. Torrii Hunter is no longer apart of the Minnesota Twins organization after signing with the aforementioned Angels of Anaheim. If they do happen to get the other Twin everybody wants (Santana), imagine how hard Angels tickets will be then? The Angels already feature a solid fanbase and if these fans get a sense their team is a contender, their interest levels will be off-the-charts.
That’s what signing big-name free agents can do for you.
Looking ahead, even if the Boston Red Sox don’t sign Santana, they will still be defending their second World Championship of the 21st century. The Red Sox feature a famous fanbase, ones that will go to extremes to get Red Sox tickets. Expect this to continue when the 2008 season kicks off, especially if they sign their pitching prize.
Expect the Red Sox to be challenged, as always, by the Yankees. The Bronx Bombers also possess passionate fans and again, if they happen to sign Santana, expect Yankee tickets to go from scarce to non-existent. Keeping Alex Rodriguez is a big key to their upcoming successes and if you add a pitcher like Johan Santana to their staff, they have to become one of the favorites to win the World Series.
Stay tuned, we’ll be back with a look National League next month.
