When we wrote the first installment of our epic Summer Watch blog series, it was a way to take our minds off the gloomy weather outside — persistent, prickly, Pacific Northwest rain.

But just a couple weeks later, that’s all changed! The sun has come out, the clouds have gone home, and — ohhh yeah — today even marks the year’s first full slate of Major League Baseball games! (Those of you in Chicago and Boston, where your games were rained out… uh, don’t let that get you down…)

So, with no further ado, here’s a look at a few 90-day Total Sales trends from subcategories of Baseball & Softball, as amateur leagues worldwide prepare for their own 2009 seasons:

First up, Category #22673: Bats

Next, Category #27942: Gloves & Mitts

And finally, Category #50808: Training Aids

Okay, that’s it for now — enjoy opening day!

Baseball, as a sport, has always lent itself to stories. In any given season, there are hundreds of them—from no-hitters to clubhouse quitters, bench-clearing brawls to disputed home run balls. There are redemption stories, suspension stories, crime dramas, and, once—we still can’t believe this actually happened—a female college student dressed as a foam sausage getting bat-thwacked by crazy Pirates infielder Randall Simon. (The latter could also fall under crime drama—Simon was charged with battery.)

One other plotline you can always count on is the emergence of star rookies. Last year it was Japan’s Daisuke Matsuzaka debuting, uh, quietly, in the AL, while the NL’s smooth-swinging Ryan Braun waged one of the best rookie batting campaigns in diamond history. In 2006, it was Hanley Ramirez and Justin Verlander; in 2005, Ryan Howard and Huston Street.

This year’s rookie crop is no less newsworthy, and it’s been interesting to track the trajectories of their respective eBay-sales seasons. When the year began, Rays third baseman Evan Longoria was a name bandied about by all baseball pundits (and not just based on that name­—there’s no relation). Today, hot off his first All-Star selection, Longoria’s July total listings have already doubled what we saw in May. He’s also a pretty safe bet for Rookie of the Year, and, maybe someday, an MVP or two.

In the NL, meanwhile, the hype surrounding Reds prospect Jay Bruce was enough that, despite spending most of May playing for AAA Louisville, his eBay listings for that month surpassed 2,500. After being called up, however, and the rip-roaring two weeks that ensued, his June numbers rocketed past 8,000. Bruce’s on-field play has since cooled off, but his July listings (3,000+) are still more than double the combined totals of presumptive NL ROY frontrunners Geovany Soto and Edinson Volquez.

As for the rest, there’s only one rook outselling both Bruce and Longoria, and that’s fire-ballin’, fist-pumpin’, Nebraska-reppin’ Joba Chamberlain. But he’s a Yankee. Not fair.