Banner Day

After a long, sleepy winter that saw the heart breaking loss of the Pats to the Giants and the rebirth of the Celtics (and to some degree, Bruins) it's time to rekindle the passion on Big Papelbon. Yesterday's picture perfect home opener seems to be the perfect time to kick things off.

Highlights of yesterday's game/ceremony included:

• * Unfurling of the 2007 banner on the Green Monster - not dissimilar to what the Sox did in 2004. Hell, it worked then, why not now?
• * A trotting out of the other Boston greats (Celts, Pats, Bruins) to help the Beaneaters celebrate their big day.
• * Handing out of the rings as players walked down the temporary red carpet
• * The big surprise (and classy touch) of having Bill Buckner throwing out the first pitch - this is worthy of a separate blog post but I'll save that for another day. I'll say two things about this move: 1) good for him - shows what a good guy he truly is after enduring twenty years of humiliation and hate 2) good for the Sox - let's get all the ghosts behind us!
• * Oh yeah, the Sox won behind timely hitting and another stellar outing by the Dice man. Hard to believe that Detroit is now 0-7 after all the fanfare about their kick ass starting lineup and rotation. It's a long season though, I'm quite sure they'll turn it around soon.
• * Even better? The Yanks lost to the suddenly mighty Kansas City Royals. Last year I would have felt really good saying this. This year, it almost feels a little petty... Nah, still feels pretty good!

The biggest take away from this early season game was that the Sox looked a little more like themselves. I'm quite sure that the 13 day, three country tour de force completely wiped them out - how could it not? To that end, the Sox looked lackluster against Toronto (who will be good this year UNTIL the usual injury bug sidelines Halladay, Burnett, Big Hurt, etc.) so it was nice to see the team that we expected back on the field.

The other early win is that Dice K is looking to play a big role in the starting pitching in 2008. After laying an egg in Japan, he came on for two stellar performances in Oakland and now Boston. The stat that jumps out at me most? 16Ks! I know, I know, it's early in the season but even so, it's good to see him fooling batters in his sophmore season.

Did you get to watch yesterday's game? If so, what was your biggest highlight?

Let the chatter on Big P begin!

Rooster Ramblings

Some random Sox thoughts from The Rooster:

-- Did the Red Sox REALLY need to let J.D. Drew wear No. 7 right after Trot leaves town? Granted, Trot never lived up to the huge expectations when he was first signed, but he was a Dirtdog for a decade. Meanwhile, Nomar’s number 5 continues to stay out of circulation. Maybe that’s fitting tho -- Trot’s uni continues to get dirty after he’s gone, and Nomar’s continues to stay clean.

-- Jerry Trupiano, wow, we miss ya big guy. I caught a few innings of the opener on RKO. Glenn Geffner was announcing an octave higher than Sanjaya.

-- There’s been a lot of nervous chatter on the local talk show airwaves about the potential trainwreck at the tail end of the Sox lineup. One thing I like down there: Pedroia doesn’t get cheated on his hacks. Varitek, on the other hand, looks Gedman-esque.

-- Raise your hand if you’d rather see Jacoby Ellsbury as the starting centerfielder right now.

-- Yes, we’re only a week into the season, but it already seems that the Yankees hopes of winning the AL East may hinge on two pitchers who aren’t even on their team now – Philip Hughes and the Rocket. If the Red Sox sales pitch works for Roger, it would be crippling for New York. Then again, at the rate the Yankees are pitching, Roger could name whatever price he wants and George would have to pay it.

-- Barry Bonds doesn’t look nearly as crippled at the plate as some writers led us to believe this offseason. The Giants come to Fenway at the Game 67 mark. If he gets some protection in that lineup, is it so unthinkable to believe he could be near the 18-20 home run mark? That would put him on the verge of Hank’s record at the Fens.

-- Do you get the feeling that this is the last week of the season where the Sox are remotely close to .500? Four terrifically pitched games out of the first six. Josh Beckett may have been the best sign of all. We all hoped for– and, in part, expected – Dice K magic. But the bar has been lowered for Beckett after last year’s 5.00 ERA. But if homeboy returns to the form that turbocharged the Marlins, this team could end up running away with the division.

10 Ks for Dice K*

Phew. Can you feel the collective sigh of relief from Red Sox nation today? Imagine if Dice K had gone out and laid an egg similar to that of Monsieur Schilling on Monday? Instead, we got the masterful performance that we expected from the phenom from Nippon! I know his first inning was a little rocky but hell, it was 30 degrees in KC yesterday. Have you ever tried to play catch in 30 degree weather never mind pitching 7 innings against a major league team?

Meanwhile, our friends the Yankees are saying, "thank God we went out and got Andy "four innings" Pettite instead of really joining the bidding war for Dice K. And thank goodness we got rid of that Randy Johnson guy and his 17 wins." Granted, RJ did struggle mightily at times last season and his ERA was 5.00. But seriously, the Yanks can't feel good right now.

Back to Dice K. 10 strike outs in his first game. Nothing sucks about that. And you know what, to all those skeptics that throw out the "but it was against the KC Royals, those guys are a AAA team at best" -- those same Royals were ranked 11th in the league with a .271 team batting average last year. Those guys don't lose games because they can't hit -- it's their pitching that sucks.

I don't know about you but I can't wait until next Wednesday to see the Dice Man pitch again in Beantown. Badda boom!

*I have to give credit to NPR for the title of this post.

Hard Time Getting in the Mood

I live just outside Boston, MA and we just got pounded with a late season Nor'Easter. It's 12:30 AM and I am soaking wet after shoveling out from over a foot of snow and sleet. This comes on the heels of visiting sunny Las Vegas for our company's Community 2.0 Conference.

It was warm in Vegas. 80 degrees in fact. I was out by the pool on the last day of the conference thinking about spring in New England. I should be -- it's only a few days away. Visions of opening day danced in my head. Thoughts of Dice-K Matsusaka, the Sox prized new pitcher, throwing out the first pitch at Fenway made me long to be home. And then the snow fell.

Why am I surprised? This happens every year. It wouldn't be New England if it didn't. While the Red Sox wrap up in the confines of sunny Florida, I'll be slogging through slush and muck for the next few weeks. My new friend, Mukund Mohan, whom I met at the conference invited me out to CA to do a webcast today. I know he was joking but I might just take him up on his offer!

We have a closer!

So, the Sox signed Matsuzaka. Sweet.

We have a freakin' awesome looking rotation now and an awesome line up. Now everyone's talking about the bullpen and how we need to get a closer in here.

Has everyone forgotten that we have the best closer in the game on our team already. Big Papelbon damnit.

I know the kid wants to start, but I say that it is too important a role to give to an overpriced mediocre free agent (all that's left). Also, I don't want to trade any of our position players (Youk or Coco), for an iffy closer. It won't matter how good our rotation is if, they all get no decisions because of the closer giving it up.

They should sign Clemens for the one year and move Pap back to where he belongs. Theo should be singing in his ear on a nightly basis, 'you're the next Mariano Rivera, you're the best closer in the game, you're going to get into the hall because you'll be the most feared closer...ever'.

-JS