While We’re Young (Ideas) Enjoys the Pageantry of Baseball
By TERRY LYONS
BOSTON – This weekend, we’ll delve into the wonderful pageantry of the game of Baseball and its place in the sporting fabric of the City of Boston and the United States of America. There’s nothing quite like it as we work towards a return to our normal lives of pre-COVID virus amidst constantly threatening variants.
First and foremost: Happy Easter and a thoughtful and peaceful Passover to those who celebrate. Our simple wish of peace to people of all faiths as Spring 2022 “Springs Eternal” in the Northeast, USA.
A DAY IN THE LIFE: The Boston Red Sox lost their home opener against the Minnesota Twins, 8-4, on Friday. Aside from some early season/limited Spring Training grumbles (see below), nearly every fan left Fenway Park as happy as could be.
First, because of the fact the home opener came six games into the season, on a 65-degree Boston Friday, the assembled fans at Fenway were downright giddy. It seemed as though the entire City of Boston and Commonwealth of Massachusetts shunned their work obligations and their Tax Man duties and will rely on the fact the true income tax deadline is Tuesday, April 19 (because of Passover and Easter). Even the Pope, the Cardinals (Roman Catholic, not St. Louis) and every Monsignor this side of the Berkshires turned their heads and offered some magical Good Friday dispensation to fans guzzling Sam Wicked Easy by the keg full.
Secondly, there was an indescribable air of normalcy at the park, certainly for the first time since September 29, 2019 which fell – get this – 929 days, as in 9/29 – since that 2019 season finale against the Baltimore Orioles. The Sox defeated the hapless O’s on the final day of the regular season but only after the bullpen blew what could’ve been SP Eduardo Rodriguez’ 20th win of the season. BTW, then-Boston OF Mookie Betts went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI to finish his career with the Red Sox.
Maybe things aren’t all that normal, again, as Betts is LONG gone and OF Jackie Bradley Jr. was here-gone-and came back again. But, Friday afternoon certainly beat an Opening Day a year ago with only 4,500 fans in the building.
Of course not to be overlooked, the Red Sox played quite well last season and filled the joint for Postseason games, including a Wild Card win over the rival New York Yankees, a 3-games-to-1 series win over a very good Tampa Bay Rays team, but an ALCS loss to the Houston Astros last October.
At Friday’s opener, the ballpark was packed (36,266) with the sellout crowd enjoying previously mentioned Sam Adams on one outfield deck or some concoction named TRULY on another deck. Progress in marketing, and changing tastes, changing societal norms, changing team personnel amidst this damn global pandemic that just won’t quit, as evidenced by the current lock-down in major cities in China, including Shanghai.
ON SATURDAY: Boston and its Fenway faithful were treated to yet another seasonably-warm late afternoon date – a 4:11pm (ET) first pitch to start the second game of the four-game set between the Sox and Minnesota Twins. The series will conclude Monday, Patriots’ Day in the Commonwealth, with the traditional 11:10am (ET) start as the Boston Marathon runs its way from the suburbs of Hopkinton all the way to Copley.
To celebrate the weekend, the Red Sox are wearing their “City” uniforms, depicted ⬇️.
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Many fans, outside of Boston, might wonder about the colors, but they are the official colors of the Boston Marathon and Boston Athletic Association. Those colors became the foundation of the “Boston Strong” civic campaign to help the city and the victims of the senseless 2013 marathon bombing incident begin the road to recovery after some severe post Traumatic Stress. As you might recall, the initial blast killed three people Krystle Marie Campbell, 29; Lü Lingzi, a 23-year old Boston University student and 8-year old Martin Richard who were all in direct proximity of the two blasts. An MIT security man, Sean Collier, was shot three days after the bombing when the two suspects tried to rob him and flee the scene and Dennis Simmonds, a local police officer, died almost a year later from wounds suffered during a shoot-out in Watertown, Mass. … We remember them all every year – FOREVER.
PANIC BUTTON: A glance to the Green Monster and the AL East standings show Boston is “next to last” place in the division (3-4) as Saturday’s game was on-going. Only the poor Baltimore Orioles (2-5) trail. … Yes, it is FAR too early to scoreboard watch and the usual frenzy and negative buzz of Boston sports talk radio and thus the fans is palpable, even if it’s eight games into the season. … The bulk of the reasoning is the lack of trust in the Red Sox starting rotation and bullpen, as evidenced in Friday’s home opener when the Twins knocked Boston SP Nick Pivetta off the mound in two innings and the bullpen coughed up another four runs in the Sox 8-4 loss. … With star SP Chris Sale out indefinitely, the likes of Pivetta, Tanner Houck, Michael Wacha, Rich Hill, and relievers Garrett Whitlock, Matt Barnes and Jake Diekman (L) are under immediate pressure to perform. That pressure comes without a proper MLB Spring Training period and stretch-out time for pitchers. The Red Sox will need a resurgence from RP Ryan Brasier and their current ace SP Nathan Eovaldi who finished fourth in the 2021 AL Cy Young Award voting. … Time will tell on both the basic situation and the possible return of Sale and SP Jim Paxton (2021 Tommy John surgery) who was acquired in the off-season. By the way, Paxton will pocket a cool $10m for his rehab efforts in ‘22 … It seems a bit early in the Spring to be hopefully awaiting the MLB All-Star break.
HOUCK TO THE RESCUE: Continuing the news from Saturday afternoon, Red Sox SP Tanner Houck walked off the mound, hopped over the first base lines in a superstitious kind-of-way and departed the game with a 4-0 lead. Houck went 5.2 innings, tossing two-hit baseball with three walks, four Ks on 89 pitches/50 strikes. He left only two runners on base and only Nick Gordonof the Twins reached third base, harmlessly.
The Red Sox won their Saturday game, 4-0, behind the pitching of Houck and Garrett Whitlock’s tidy work out of the bullpen. All is not lost in the Fens.
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