Opening Day

Unfortunately, I had to listen to most of the game at work, with distractions flying around. My coworker has a radio that we fire up during day games and folks hover around our area and periodically check in every couple of innings. I'm sorry that I missed watching Kevin Youkilis' supposedly great defensive play (Trupiano nearly fell off his chair delivering that one). I'm not sorry, however, that I missed watching Foulk give up a huge hit and Wily Mo make sure that it was a homer. I'm going to have to get myself one of those squeeze balls for when they put him in the line up. So far, he's demonstrating swinging skills ala Darrin Lewis and fielding proficiency ala me. I know that he's going to improve. I know. There's just going to be a lot of teeth grinding in the meantime. And even you unconditional proponents of Wily Mo have to admit to that.

Lowell is really stepping up and this pleases me a great deal. I'm equally impressed with Loretta. We seem to be getting key hits at key times and most of the line up knows how to work the pitch count. Oh, yeah, and Stern = wow. Having him in for Crisp, as I've said before, is no hardship. He's a decent lead off hitter and his defensive work is fairly solid.

I guess we are learning that Beckett usually has a rocky first inning. This isn't so bad for a team like the Jays, but it could be an issue when facing teams that know how to capitalize on weaknesses. I won't mention any team names here, but you know who I'm talking about. The good news is, once Beckett settles down, he's great. And if he can get out of first inning jams with only one run on the board for the opponent, the next six innings should be a breeze.



I don't have to continually sing the praises of Jon Papelbon, but I will. I love this kid. Unrattled. Scary. Dominant. I'd love to see him start a game against the Yankees, just to see how easy it would be to put them away. Looks like I might have to wait until next year. *Sigh*

Tonight is my first official game at Fenway. I've started a countdown here at work. One hour down, seven hours to go.