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.

Celebrate Good Times - Come On!

Yeah, I went with the Kool and The Gang lyric there, before Shank had his chance to do the same:

Regardless of Red Sox expectations, this is a day to celebrate the return of baseball

For one shining moment, let’s have no snark. No cynicism. No wiseguy remarks about bat-to-ball skills, spin rate, analytic geeks, standing ovations in Springfield, or payroll flexibility.

Let’s celebrate the start of another baseball season. The Red Sox are 0-0 and not yet poisoned by last place or false narratives.

You don't need the benefit of hindsight to realize that line is world-class bullshit. I mean it helps a lot, but whatever...

Almost 30 years ago, the Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell — their Gammons — released a book titled, “Why Time Begins on Opening Day.”

It’s a great phrase and reminds us of a long-ago day when baseball was king of New England and Opening Day was a legal excuse to skip school.

Happy New Year, everyone. The Red Sox are readying for their 123rd season opener Thursday (2:10 p.m.) at ancient, beautiful Fenway Park against the Orioles and we are in Full Rochie, Hakuna Matata mode.

For this one day only, we are all Bart Giamatti, Roger Angell, Ken Burns, and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Ich bin ein citizen of Red Sox Nation.

I wonder if Shank realizes that line from JFK is actually a massive gaffe? The literal meaning of 'Ein Berliner' is 'a donut' / 'one donut'; the proper way for JFK to have conveyed his message in German is 'Ich bin Berliner', or 'I am of Berlin'; i.e., 'I'm one of you.'

My My, He's Full Of Shit

Either that, or Shank's turned in his best ever troll job:

The 108th Fenway Park Opening Day is Tuesday, and we have so many questions.

Will Dustin Pedroia make his 2019 debut and start at second base? Will Gronk throw out the ceremonial first pitch? Will Chris Sale crack 93 miles per hour on the gun? Will Jackie Bradley Jr. crawl over the Mendoza Line?

The Red Sox are in last place and have the worst run differential (minus-26) in all of baseball. Only four teams have made more errors, and Boston’s five-man pitching rotation (aggregate salary: $88 million) has an ERA of 9.13. Will any of the Red Sox get booed in the wake of the club’s abysmal 3-8 slog through Seattle, Oakland, and Phoenix?

“I don’t think anybody has ever gotten their World Series rings and gotten booed,’’ said David Price, a man who knows a thing or two about getting booed in Boston.

As one who traditionally sees the glass as half-full, I am here to tell you that there will be no boos before the game at Fenway Tuesday.

See what I mean?

It's Opening Day

...and Shank is right on it:

History and ubiquitous connections to the past make it special to live in Boston. There’s very little that’s truly new. Almost nothing stands alone as its own entity.

And so it is with the ritual that is the Opening Day of the baseball season here in the Hub of the Universe.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are the Red Sox’ opponent for the franchise’s 117th Opening Day, and this represents only the third time in history that the Pirates have traveled to Boston to play the Sox. The Pirates were here in 1903 for the first World Series and they were here in 2005 for one of these goofy interleague series, which still seem silly and unnecessary. And now the Pirates are here through Thursday to face a Red Sox team that is universally favored to win the American League East for a second straight season.

The Red Sox won 93 games last year, but the season ended badly and quickly when Terry Francona’s Cleveland Indians smoked the Sox in three straight Division Series games. The takeaway from that final week of an otherwise good Red Sox season: In their final nine games, the Sox had eight losses, five David Ortiz celebrations, and an early exit from the tournament.

That's what I like about Shank - always accentuating the positive and looking at the bright side of things!

Opening Day

Shank covers Opening Day from Fenway Park, and reveals his true age:

If it seems like we’ve been doing this for 104 years . . . it’s because we’ve been doing this for 104 years. As it was in 1912, when the granddaddy of JFK threw out the ceremonial first pitch, it is today.

You know the drill. First day of Fenway. Skip school. Watch the opening ceremonies. Honor the past. Watch the Sox beat a worthy rival. See a spectacular catch by Mookie Betts in the very first inning. See yet another homer by David Ortiz. Decide that this is the year. Hope that maybe some dreams come true.

We gathered back at the Fens Monday to watch the surging Sox of 2015 take on the deeply-talented, highly touted Washington Nationals. It marked the first time Washington served as an opponent for Fenway’s opener since the old Senators (they became the Twins) played here on April 14, 1959 with a young third baseman named Harmon Killebrew.

After the snowiest winter on record, the baseball god blessed the Red Sox and their fans with one of the more spectacular April afternoons of all time. It was a perfect, sun-splashed 69 degrees when the Nationals and Red Sox lined up for pregame introductions. A young child accompanied each Sox player. In an age of Xbox and X Games, Major League Baseball finally has decided it needs to re-charge its fans base and cultivate a new generation of fans.