Baseball’s first month offered a few lessons

T.S. Eliot said, “April is the cruelest month.” Yeah, well, what did he know about baseball? He was just an old poet.

Talk to the wise old men of baseball, and they’ll tell you something far more profound: “Pennants can’t be won in April, and they can’t be lost then, either.”

But in those 30 days, plenty of themes, tones, trends and tribulations can be identified.

The season may be almost 20 percent over – insert joke about struggling team here – but there has already been plenty to learn if you’re paying attention.

We give you a month’s worth of observations that ought to last you the whole year through.

Our top lessons learned from the first month:

The Brew Crew is true blue:

When a team loses its ace and gets better, you know you have something special, um, brewing. Milwaukee’s rotation is solid without Ben Sheets, largely because of the addition of innings gobbler Jeff Suppan. The bullpen has the National League’s best save percentage. Yes, it’s Francisco Cordero who has all those saves. Milwaukee, a chic spring training pick, could run away with the division.

The weather is here: Not even sure if Bud Selig saw “An Inconvenient Truth.” But if there is a sequel to Al Gore’s global warming documentary, Selig should get interviewed.

Baseball lost 21 games to weird, wild, wacky weather in April. Seattle still has four games to make up, which will kill any chances the Mariners might have had to contend. With retractable roofs and warm weather cities, baseball has to do a better job of scheduling early in the season. Teams simply can’t afford all those postponements early and hope to contend late.

Time for Amnesty International: The Gary Matthews Jr. HGH scandal rocked spring training. Now comes the New York Mets’ clubhouse kid scandal. It’s not going to stop. What baseball must do is offer amnesty to past transgressors, then bury the past and work toward getting Olympic-caliber drug testing. Otherwise, every year will be played under the cloud of suspicion and every record will be subject to the same suspicion.

Home runs have become a meaningless stat: New York’s Alex Rodriguez had 14 of them in April. He tied some record for most homers in the month, and also had five more homers than the Yankees had wins. Enough said.

Ding, dong, the dynasty is dead: Speaking of the Yankees, actually the dynasty ended a few years ago. But just like the Roman Empire, it drudged along in full decline for a while. This team can’t even pass itself off as a contender right now. Predictions: Joe Torre will still be (unfairly) fired by the end of the year, and one big, big name will be traded. Did somebody say Rodriguez to the Angels for Brandon Wood and a pitcher? Hmmm.