The Sox come into this season with somewhat less of a sheen than in recent years, at least if you believe the bulk of media opinion. Everyone thinks that the Yankees have re-tooled by virtue of the fact that they overpaid for the right to get Johnny Damon to shear his locks. Johnny Damon is a fine player, one of the 25, and will be a substantial upgrade over Bernie Williams, but I am unclear why his addition is seen as either such a huge blow to the Sox, who managed to pick up a much younger and cheaper Coco Crisp who will start his crest just as Damon descends. Meanwhile the Yankees' postseason hopes hinge largely on the arms and backs of Randy Johnson and Mike Mussina. Not thet the Sox initial outloook is that much better in the pitching health department, with Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, and David Wells leading the charge into their 40s, but the Sox picked up Josh Beckett, an ornery Texas fireballer, and have several young guys ready to blossom (Lester, Papelbon, Hansen, Delcarmen). Meanwhile people love the Blue Jays for reasons even more mysterious to me than the support for the Yankees. AJ Burnett is a nice pitcher. Who is starting the year on the disabled list. BJ Ryan has not yet shown that he can consistently close games out, and in any case, they Jays have to be in a position to have a closer matter at the end of games. Carlos Delgado will put up some nice numbers. But I do not see the Blue Jays stepping in between the Red Sox and Yankees, never mind above both. Forget about the Orioles (you alreday did, I'm sure) and chuckle morosely at the plight of the poor, pitiful Tampa Devil Rays.
I am pleased that the Sox are not coming into this season as favorites. The White Sox story effectively ended a three-year run where the rest of the country was beginning to overload on Sox-Yanks, and now the target is on their backs. Nonetheless, the matchups in the Fens and the South Bronx will continue to provide baseball's Athens versus Sparta, its most compelling storyline. All it will take is one knockdown pitch, one brawl, one thirteen-inning game, and the rest of the country will be riveted despite themselves.
As always, I see the Red Sox coming out on top (love is blind and all that). Schilling is better right now than the Big Unit, Beckett will prove better than anyone the Yanks can throw out, Crisp will be a more than adequate replacement for Johhny Damon, who is already suffering shoulder issues even before the season starts, not that it will have much effect one way or the other on his popgun of an arm. The Red Sox still have Big Papi and Manny, who may or may not know that it is baseball season yet. They still have Varitek behind the plate. Tomorrow at 1:05 I'll be in Arlington and will be one of thousands (I will guarantee it now) of Red Sox fans who, by the fifth inning, will be drowning out the fickle and hapless locals. And no, I won't care if I ever get back, though I must by Thursday morning at 6:20 when I fly from Midland to DC for a conference. Oh well.
A troika of other baseball-observations:
Even though they are getting waxed by the defending champs right now (10-4 ChiSox in the 8th) I see the Indians as having a really fun team, making Jacobs Field once again a place to be on northeast Ohio summer days. The signing of Grady Sizemore is a brillaitn way to assure that the future is good in Clevelend. The biggest issue will simply be learning how to win. Once they do that, I think the Mistake on the Lake will have a renaissance akin to those teams from the mid-1990s.
Opening Day is truly one of the great days of the year, and in many ways it is a celebration of fans. And once tomorrow and Tuesday are over, day games during the week will be as rare as cheap ballpark beer. Major League Baseball teams get 81 home dates. Must they really maximize every earnable dollar? Will it kill them to have a few during the day when kids can get there, during times more family friendly than the witching hours, and when kids will not fall asleep halfway through a giant pretzel in the seventh inning? I know I sound like Bob Costas here, but seriously, how will baseball ever cultivate a new generation of fans if those fans never see what a ninth inning looks like?
Finally, I am willing to bet that attendance figures in these opening days will give the lie to the obsession over steroids. Real fans care about the steroids situation, but to nowhere near the all encompassing degree that sportswriters would have you believe. The game is still the thing, and I can assure you that on the field, the game is going to be as good as ever. So good that Ernie Banks might suggest, "let's play two."
GO SOX!!!!
2 comments:
I also went to Opening Day in Arlington and I was utterly disgusted by fan turnout. Not that being a part of a record 51,000+ crowd was bad, but over half of them were Red Sox fans such as yourself. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with Sox fans but Rangers fans are pathetic. I, myself, am a diehard Ranger fan and it disgusts me how there is little support for a team filled with loads of potential. I think that what Ranger fans need is an intense rivalry like the Red Sox-Yanks, Cubs-Cardinals, Dodgers-Giants. But the question is, how do you start such a rivalry? Seeing as how the actual Texas Rangers have only been in existence since 72, we don't have the near century feud between the Sox-Yanks, but there is no reason we can't start one. So here's what I propose: The Rangers go out against any team and just start a huge fight, use the media to play up the incident, and use every other tactic in the book to create animosity. That way next time they play, Dallas citizens will go to rally the cause of the Rangers and this could in turn lead into more people embracing the Texas Rangers. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it.
I think your approach is a good one.
The best way to create a rivalry, of course, si to have sustained meetings that mean something against one team -- four or five years of intense rangers-A's games, with a little beat of beanball shenanigans, some trash talk, and consistent pennant races -- that will help. The probl;em is one of history, as you mention, but also geography -- the Sox-Yanks are about four hours apart and are part of the same northeastern culture, media, etc. The closest team to the Rangers is the Astros, and they are in the NL, so obviously while the interleague matchups can be fun and intense, they cannot have that sustained animosity/respect.
But think of it this way -- the northeast can't touch texas for college football support, madness, and rivalries. There are probably thirty college rivalries more intense than anything BC has. Hell, texas' sixth most intense rivalry surpasses that BC has with Virginia Tech.
Williams-Amherst is, however, the best rivalry in college sports!
dcat
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