Welcoming the new season like we sent off the last--bitter and ripe with complaints

slidepiece - n. term popularized by baseball broadcaster Joe Morgan; any pitch that is not a fastball (and sometimes a fastball when Joe is having an off-night)

Year after year, I'm amazed how, for someone so impressed with his own baseball knowledge, Joe Morgan struggles to identify pitches. Tonight's example came in the eighth inning when Mets reliever Joe Smith threw a pitch with clear textbook sinker action, and Joe called it a "slidepiece," his favorite made-up word for a breaking pitch.

I understand that it takes a certain type of eye and level of familiarity to distinguish different breaking pitches in real-time (and I'll also add that Smith has a sidewheeling delivery that creates slightly different action than the same pitch thrown by an overhand delivery), but I just think that someone who seemingly believes he knows everything about baseball should be able to call pitches better than some average schmuck like me.

And with that, baseball season is upon us.