Off The Press

Off the Press, both the Red Sox and the Yankees won their home openers yesterday.  Yesterday also marked the first time, in a decade, that I've missed being in Boston for the Red Sox home opener.  I'm not a huge baseball fan (somehow I keep saying that, but I write seem to write volumes about the game), but there is something magical about opening day.  I remember, in high school, sneaking out of Boston Latin to creep down to the ballpark and catching teachers who had snuck down there too.  Good times.

Full plate of home cooking a delicious feast to savor, reports Bob Bradley of the Cape Cod Times.  The Red Sox have blazed out of the gate, 6-1, to begin the season, and with 60 degree temperatures in Boston, this is as close to Nirvana has a native New Englander can experience in April.  However, whatever goes on in Boston, it's done with an eye focused 190 miles south on the New York Yankees.  Bradley notes:

So far in this young season, it's as close to Boston baseball utopia as one can get.

OK, so there are 155 games still to be played, and we haven't yet seen that vaunted New York Yankees lineup, the one that scorched the Kansas City Royals for five eighth-inning runs to win its home opener in the Bronx yesterday. And the Jays are expected to be Boston's other competition in the East this year, spending lavishly in the offseason to close the gap. The Jays, of course, get the Red Sox 17 more times before it's all said and done.

And the Sox lost another outfielder in Trot Nixon, who strained a groin muscle after slipping going for a fly ball early in the game. His status is day-to-day, but he likely won't play for at least the next couple of games.

Injuries happen, slumps happen, and other unforeseen forces can wreak havoc on the sense of invincibility the Red Sox feel this morning. Yet this team has depth all around, and an infusion of fresh blood hungry for success.

As much as the Sox are watching the Yankees, the Yankees are watching the Sox.  In their endless quest for domination over each other, the Yankees and Red Sox (and their partisans) are unitedby their mono-maniacal obsession with one another.  It is a truism that the New York and Boston media outlets devote almost as much time to covering the enemy as they spend on their home team.  For example, in today's Times, Lee Jenkins writes, Red Sox new starter already a familiar presence. Writing a story on the Sox's new ace, Josh Beckett, Jenkins compares him to Curt Schilling who has become a figure of some controversy in Red Sox Nation for being outspoken and for being a Red Stater on the ultimate Blue State team.  Jenkins writes:

Beckett and Schilling may be best received from at least 60 feet away. While Schilling has been known to alienate some teammates with his outspoken opinions, Beckett has made enemies of opponents. The latest on his list is Toronto's Shea Hillenbrand, who started toward first base Tuesday on a pitch he assumed was ball four and then had to retreat when the pitch was called a strike.

"I'm kind of about playing the game right," Beckett said. "I didn't appreciate that very much."

This is a common refrain from Beckett, who once yelled at Kenny Lofton for flipping his bat after a walk and chastised the Mets' Victor Diaz for trotting after he hit a ball to the fence. In spring training, when Philadelphia's Ryan Howard also broke into a trot after a fly ball, Beckett taunted him from the dugout the next inning, nearly starting a brawl.

Beckett's fiery persona can help him and hurt him, sometimes in the same day. He walked three batters in the first inning Tuesday, threw 36 pitches, and escaped only after he became irritated with Hillenbrand. On the next pitch, Beckett induced a double play from Hillenbrand, then berated himself as he walked to the dugout.

Watching from the top step, Schilling beamed. At 39, he is not as outwardly emotional as Beckett, but he is also unafraid to let the world watch him bleed on the field. While Schilling provided the enduring image of the 2004 season with his virtuoso performance in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium, Beckett capped the 2003 season in similar fashion: a shutout in Game 6 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium.

"He wants to be great," Schilling said. "He wants to be something special. We can help each other."

Beckett and Schilling, apprentice and mentor..kinda like Mike Tyson meets Don King, or Wynton Marsalis meets Stanley Crouch.  Things will be interesting in Boston this year.

Before I forget, I've been meaning to post a little bit about the upcoming NFL draft.  Finding good reliable information regarding the draft oftentimes can be like trying to find a honest rug merchant in Izmir - lots of hype, very little honesty.  Check out the Colin Lindsay's Great Blue North Draft report, I find it to be the best source for NFL Draft news and their links page is outstanding.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

out. 

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• #1 Comment from monponsett 
  5/2/06 6:32 PM | Permalink

  If the Yankees played the Taliban, I'd root for a tie.