I have folded up the Tom Brady jersey and put it away. I have set aside the Kevin Garnett jersey until i take it out for the Celtics playoff push. It is time now to don the jersey of your favorite Red Sox players and get ready for another exciting Major League Baseball season. Spring is finally here. I have to hand it to Major League Baseball. I think that this year they got it right. They didn't ship the World Series winners overseas to play in Japan or China or somewhere and they didn't open the season with Royals vs Tigers or some other match-up without much appeal. This year the season began on Easter Sunday with a match-up between the defending World Series champion New York Yankees and their arch rival the Boston Red Sox. This is, hands down, the best rivalry in sports. The series didn't go the way I wanted it to, but we did get our first win against the Yankees under our belt and the games were well played for the most part. Hey, when you think about it last year the Sox won the first 8 games against the Yankees only to lose 9 out of the next 10 so maybe losing 2 out of the first 3 ain't bad.
All I can say is that I watched 3 very entertaining games to start this year and I am looking to watch 159 more throughout the regular season. And I have a feeling that there will be meaningful baseball played in Fenway Park well into October. The Red Sox have an exciting mix of young players and veterans both in the field and on the mound. You have to like your team when your 3rd starter is John Lackey and your 4th or 5th starter has thrown a no-hitter. It's also nice when your back-up catcher is Jason Varitek and the first bat off your bench is in the very capable hands of Mike Lowell. I know that the "experts" picked the Red Sox to finish 3rd in the East behind both the Yankees and the Rays, but I think those experts are underestimating the heart this Sox team has. We have seen 3 great games against the Yankees and get to look forward to 15 more. We also have 18 games against the Rays and that equals one great season.
If you are a Yankees or Rays fan and are reading this I'm sorry to dash your hopes of a World Series this year. If you are a Red Sox fan I want to leave you with one parting thought. After an 86 year drought the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. They then won it again in 2007, three years later. Well it is 2010, three years after their last World Series title, and not that I am greedy or feel a sense of entitlement, but I have a feeling that history is going to repeat itself. Let's go Red Sox.
