Opening Day...

...in Washington DC. Check out these two videos, of the same event; the crowd noise is very different...





(I like the first one better.)

Coliseum

Not too often, but sometimes, I miss Southern California. The restaurants, the weather, and this. Man that looked fun - 115,300 fans! I especially like this:

“Wakie’s a fly ball pitcher. That’s great,” Varitek said some 3 1/2 hours before the game as he walked down the Coliseum tunnel and glanced toward the left-field screen.

Then, in his best broadcast voice, Varitek he intoned: “Dodgers 85, Red Sox 81.”

And the 2-8 putout (Andruw Jones was playing behind 2nd base) is not bad either.

Second game today at 4:10 eastern.

Today's headline

Southern California man gets 30 days in jail for throwing bottle at Piazza

[Roland] Flores pleaded guilty last week to misdemeanor counts of using force and violence to assault Piazza, and for intentionally throwing a substance while at the stadium, [Police St. Rick] Martinez said.

He pleaded guilty? Idiot. He should've just said he thought the water bottle was a baseball and he wanted to give it back to Piazza. That defense works every time.

Anyone awake?...

...for a Game 2 thread?

Nice start to the season...

So, you gotta love that. And here's to 161 more. Now that the season's officially begun, we need to get back to posting on this site. After my hiatus, I'm on board. Anyone else?

I'll start: we never made our yearly predictions. Here I go...

AL East: BOS (96-66), NYY (92-70), TB (81-81), TOR (80-82), BAL (3-159)
AL Central: CLE, DET, MIN, , KAN, CHW
AL West: LAA, SEA, TEX, OAK

NL East: NYM, PHI, ATL, WAS, FLA
NL Central: CHI, STL, MIL, HOU, PIT, CIN
NL West: LAD, ARI, COL, SDP, SFG

Anyone else?

The Next Dimaggio

(AP)—Tampa Bay’s Rocco Baldelli will begin the season on the disabled list because of a condition that the oft-injured outfielder says leaves him feeling extremely fatigued after short workouts.

What is this world coming to. In the old days, we would just say this guy is out of shape. And what else is in the news.

Billy Crystal is going to play a game for the Yanks. I expect this nonsense from the Padres. What's next? Put it on ebay - the chance to play for the Yankees. If NY's governor will pay $80K for sex, certainly there are some fans that will pay at least that to play in a spring training game.

So, Beckett's back is hurting. Is it my fault for jinxing the Sox rotation with my question of what it would look like without him? Also, give me the pulse of the nation. Panic? The whole thing could be a smoke screen for the Sox wanting to have Devern Hansack and Julian Tavarez pitching their first two games of the season.

And I love that today Girardi protested an exhibition game. Okay, what if he wins. Do they have to play the exhibition game over from the point of protest?

2008 SOX

So the reason Earl created this blog was to reduce the zillion emails that could sprout up during a season and then fill someone's inbox with the 46 reply to alls. So in the interests fo that, i will pull in an email from GR and myself and get it going out here.

My message -
I'm looking forward to the season. I worry about a world in which the Sox are the favorites, and that first month looks like a killer. Tor has an easy schedule that first month, so it will be funny to hear all the writers say they are for real on May1 or 15th - right before Burnett goes on the DL, BJ Ryan needs more surgery, and Rolen gets hurt again. The only thing more predictable is the annual Ken Griffey JR hamstring injury.

GR response
I think that Schilling is actually more of a loss than people think. Yes, he wasn’t that great last year, but Lester doesn’t fill me with confidence in that role, yet…Also, a blister from Beckett could prove devastating to this team…AND there are lots of old guys to boot.

So what do you guys all think? It looks like I was early on my BJ Ryan prediction as he is already hurting. Oh no, wait it was AJ Burnett who is now hurt. And GR is worried about a Schilling-less staff. I think there are some people that are saying "no worries" about missing Curt. In the long run, it is probably a game or two in the standings (and that assumes that Curt would have made 25 starts). So a game or two could be HUGE. Or it could be nothing. We won't know for sure. Hopefully he can come back in the second half and *pitch* like he did late last year.

But to pull a page from the GR book, I would argue that the Sox rotation looks great, especially in comparison to the Yankees. GR worst case scenario is a blister to Beckett. And blisters heal fairly quickly.

Take Beckett out of the rotation and match up the Sox versus the Yankees.

Dice-K vs. Wang - edge Sox. Wang gets killed by good teams and the yanks bad fielding is bound to catch up with him one of these seasons.
Pettite vs Wake - slight edge NY
Mussina vs Lester - sorry, even with the walks I'll take Lester
Kennedy/Hughes et al vs Bucholz/Tavarez et al - a complete wash.

Now put Beckett back in and the Sox likely win all those "matchups."

And bullpens. I'll take Paps over Mo, Joba over Delcarmen and all the rest of the guys on both staffs are question marks.

So which team gets Sabathia when CLE is 15 games out in June - could be the difference in September/October.