Keyboard Quarterbacks

By Mark La Monica

[Note: * Upon further review as of 12/28/06, the Kentucky Derby has moved from first runner-up to No. 10 on the list, replacing the first televised baseball game of your favorite team. That game, almost always a spring training game, is still a good day, but perhaps we were caught up in the emotion of it a little too much to think rationally.]

Snow, sleet, hail, rain and two hours of root canal conspired to cast asunder the 10th best sports day of the year.

But all the novocaine and nitrous gas in the Northern Hemisphere could not keep me away from the YES Network at 1 p.m. Thursday for the first televised spring training game of the season.

Sure, the game means less than nothing. And, yes, in today's world of regional sports networks and crazy cable programming, we are able to watch more than one or two spring training games each March. Ten years ago, we'd be happy to get one game on television.

But this doesn't diminish the first runner-up for our 10 best sports days of the year -- the first televised spring game of your favorite baseball team.

For Yankees fans, that was today, Thursday, March 02, 2006. Shawn Chacon got the start in the Grapefruit League opener, a 6-3 loss to the Phillies. 

Of course, none of this matters in the grand scheme of the season and pursuing a World Series ring. But it's still fun to check off the landmarks of the approaching baseball season.

Gene Michael threw out the first pitch. Michael Kay made corny jokes. The Yankees wore their pinstripes for the opener, the only time they'll do that until the first game at Yankee Stadium on April 11 against the Royals.

Johnny Damon had his first official at-bat, a double. Johnny Damon had his second official at-bat, a single.

Mama La Monica made her first outrageous comment of the season. "Who is this Mike Myers guy?" she said. "Already I don't like him."

Ah, Myers must have given up some runs. Oh, lookee here, he did. Three runs in one inning. The first bad bullpen outing of the season. Equally unimportant as all the other stuff from today's game, but noteworthy nonetheless. Let's hope we don't have to care about this in June.

The Best Sports Days of the Year
1. Opening Day for baseball
2. The start of March Madness
3. Pitchers and catchers report
4. NFL Sunday Week 1
5. Selection Sunday
6. NFL Conference Championship Sunday
7. NFL Draft
8. Super Bowl Sunday
9. Sunday at The Masters
10. Kentucky Derby*
Honorable Mention
• FIrst televised baseball game for your team
• Bowl games on New Year's Day