Opening Day

I went to one Red Sox home opener. It was in the late 1980's, bleacher seats and I was there with someone from school. We get to the sixth inning and a guy about three rows in front of us gets up and drops trou. She shrieked; I'm like 'full moon, baby!'

That sort of thing doesn't happen nowadays, but after an awful first set of games, the Red Sox kicked off the start of the home games on the right foot:

A new season at Fenway, as it always does, conjures up the memories

Booed yesterday. Cheered today.

You’re never as good as you look when you win or as bad as you look when you lose. The only certainty in the Boston Baseball Experience is that in one form or another, it’s always about the past.

You can embrace 2026 with its robotic umps, player empowerment, in-game celebrations, and starting pitchers who get a parade if they last six innings.

But at the end of every Fenway opener, it’s winning or losing and how a particular game compares with stuff that happened 20, 40, maybe 100 years ago in this same sacred space.

The last-place Red Sox — tied for worst record in baseball with the lowly A’s and ChiSox at the start of the day — defeated the Padres, 5-2, at Fenway Park in the 126th home opener for the team originally known at the Boston Americans.

DHL Dan CCXCIII - Rember When?

I don't always remember where I was for every seismic sporting event. I remeber where I was when the ball went between Buckner's legs in the 1986 World Series because I was watching the game with some Mets fans who went absolutely apeshit when it happened. I also remember the Tuck Rule game, because I went to bed as soon as I saw it happen, convinced it was a fumble. And now, we have the latest thing that makes you jump off of your couch:

You’ll always remember where you were when Braylon Mullins shot UConn into Final Four, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for the Red Sox to stagger into Fenway for their 126th home opener . . .

⋅ Where were you when UConn’s Braylon Mullins launched the shot heard ’round basketball America?

I was alone in my TV room/man cave, eyes glued to the giant flatscreen as the beautiful orange sphere flew 35 feet, then ripped through the netting with nary a trace of iron. I hollered, “Wow!” or some other profound remark that no one could hear. Not even the chair.

I starting thinking of friends and family across the land, wondering where they were watching, and how they were reacting.

Was former Globe columnist Leigh Montville watching? Montville’s a proud UConn alum who goes back to the days of Wes Bialosuknia and Toby Kimball. I knew he’d made a small purchase at Jordan’s Furniture during the “your furniture will be free if UConn’s men’s and women’s teams play for the championship” window. For sure, Leigh was watching.

What about Jim Calhoun? He’s a Braintree guy who first coached at Dedham High School, then had Reggie Lewis at Northeastern, and wound up at UConn, where he won the school’s first three men’s NCAA basketball championships. No doubt Calhoun was watching. Maybe he was there.

DHL Dan CCXCII - Mild Criticism

You figure if a team plays bad, Shank's all over them, right? Last week's Picked Up Pieces column, leading off with the Sox's Game 2 loss to the Cincinnatti Reds, doesn't throw much of a punch:

Red Sox’ run prevention looks a lot like 2025 in the early going, and other thoughts

CINCINNATI ― Picked up pieces from four days on the road with the Red Sox . . .

Saturday’s 11-inning, 6-5 loss to the Reds in front of 38,298 at Great American Ball Park was one of the most entertaining Game 2’s in baseball history.

Exaggeration? Of course. But who’s going to argue? There’ve been a lot of memorable Opening Days, but Game 2’s generally dissolve into the ether as emphatically forgettable. Just one of 162.

Not this one. The Sox were sloppy early as Sonny Gray struggled in his Sox debut. Boston trailed, 5-3, in the late innings, but were lifted by Wilyer Abreu (do they have a better hitter than this guy?), who roped an RBI double to cut it to 5-4 in the seventh, then hit a two-out, ninth- inning homer off flamethrower Emilio Pagán to send the game into extras.

The Reds won it in the 11th when Dane Myers singled home TJ Friedl on an 0-1 pitch from Justin Slaten.

Speaking of flamethrowing, I wonder when Shank's going to torch the team again? Stay tuned!

Red Sox Roundup

Shank's done a lot of columns about the 2025 Boston Red Sox over the last couple of weeks and I havent, so let's get all caught up!

With this column, Shank straddles the fence on a good but possibly flawed team, followed up by saying nice things abuth their opening day win.