Opening Night

As disappointed as I was that ESPN decided to put Opening Day for the Red Sox, I am happy with the end result. When it comes to baseball, I am a traditionalist when it comes to the the idea of having the first game at Fenway in the afternoon on a weekday and (unless the Red Sox won the World Series the year before and have a ring ceremony) not against the Yankees to start things off. Every year there is an afternoon in April where Red Sox Nation can bask in the glow of this thing called the sun that has been evading New England since baseball season ended in October and get a fresh start on a new season. This Year however, ESPN decided to have the Sox play their first game at night against New York ON EASTER SUNDAY! It's a busy enough day as it is. Let us wait until Tuesday to worry about baseball. At any rate, the game itself turned out better than it looked like it would.

There is no better feeling than knowing that the Red Sox are in first place and have the best record in all of Major League Baseball while the Yankees are in dead last and have yet to win a game. I know that it was just after one game and no other teams have played yet, but it still feels good. Josh Beckett struggled but so did C.C. Sabathia, so it's okay. The Red Sox have a better bullpen right now and the defensive specialists that they brought in this off-season were also hitting well last night. I was skeptical about the defense and run prevention approach that Theo Epstein took this year, but last night it showed its worth. The Red Sox and Yankees lineups were both able to produce a lot of runs, but the Red Sox were error free and the New York gave up the winning run on a passed ball. Now this is starting to make sense to me.

I am glad the Red Sox got the first win out of the way, but they still have 161 games to go. I was glad that Pedro Martinez threw out the first pitch last night. He was always my favorite player when he was on the Red Sox. I am glad that Beckett is staying in Boston for four more years after this one. I look forward to game two of the 2010 season on Tuesday. Jon Lester will make his first start of what I predicted will be a Cy Young Award winning season. I also want to see the Yankees fall 0-2 to start their title defending campaign. They will be good, but I always enjoy seeing them get off to a rough start.