Saturday, April 06, 2002
What a difference a day makes
What a fantastic game it was.
And this could just be the beginning:
"He is a ground ball pitcher, playing with infielders who usually don't muff ground balls (this may turn out to be the Sox' best defensive team in 10 years)" (Holley).
I woke up to falling snow this morning, but not even than could temper my enthusiasm.
Did you see how Giambi got booed at Yankee Stadium?
Good news all around (assuming you focus only on baseball, at least).
At 1pm today I'll be busting open my first bag of roasted peanuts of the season and my first Saturday afternoon of the '02 season with the Red Sox.
Friday, April 05, 2002
Waiting
Not much to do today but wait for the game tonight. Doesn't do much good to ruminate on the unknown. (I think I had my fill of that over the winter.)
So strange to have baseball going on all around us but to be caught in this void where the Red Sox aren't playing. I can't think of a time in which the season opened with games on nonconsecutive days like this one did. Of course, the rainout Wednesday only made it worse.
If you're like me, after what happened on Monday, all you want is to get it behind you by winning a game or two to show it was just a fluke and not an omen for the next 161.
And speaking of omens, I was reminded of another one yesterday on Metafilter:
Pedro Martinez's record since saying that he didn't believe in the curse and would drill the Babe in the ass with a pitch if he could? 0-2, with SIX no decisions, and 5.89 ERA. Yup, no curse indeed.
posted by mikel at 5:56 AM PST on April 4
Not that I needed any reminding, but seeing it mentioned on non-sports specific sites makes it all the more disconcerting.
Thursday, April 04, 2002
Vuelve
Well, I picked a good season opening to be distant from. Without web access and digital cable, I was reduced to getting my Red Sox news by way of the AP wire stories in the local paper and brief highlights on the local TV news. (The Patriots at Fenway for the opener was the lead story even in South Texas.)
Had I been tuned into Monday's game first hand, I'd have been rolling on the floor with a fan seizure, biting my own tongue and breaking things with my head.
But since I only caught it second hand, I remain cautiously optimistic rather than outright gloomy.
Boston..............IP..H..R.ER.BB.SO..NP....ERA
Martinez.............3..9..8..7..2..4..84..21.00
Nope. I'm still OK. Let's give Pedro a few more starts before we collectively puke in our mouths, as Simmons would say. And even then, I think we should be hoping for so-so rather than total dominance.
It is a long season, and I'd happily accept mediocrity (or worse) now, for
a vanquishing September behind Pedro.
(You know what I mean.)
Besides, "romance is about putting things aright after some tragedy has put them asunder." And if nothing else, I'm a baseball romantic. I couldn't be a Red Sox fan if I were not.
Bring on the O's.
