And so it begins. . .Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees

Caught my first Boston Red Sox spring training game today on MLB.TV and truth be told, it was a yawner. Ended up 8-4, Yanks; a score that was on the board by the bottom of the fourth inning, rendering the remainder of the broadcast something of an exercise for the announcers, Michael O'Kay and John O'Flaherty (it being St. Patrick's Day, they both added "O"s to the front of their last names.). Having lived in New York for the last 15 years or so, I heard and saw a lot of these two (Flaherty, less. Kay is usually teamed with Paul O'Neill or Al Leiter). Every time the Sox and Yankees got together, I'd be listening to them instead of Joe Castglione and Jerry Remy. Kay and Flaherty are Yankee partisans, of course, but they're also professionals and Michael Kay, in particular, is a first class announcer. He used to do 'color' with John Sterling on New York radio. Sterling is more of an obvious Yankee fan than Kay, with an annoying habit of making routine plays into headline news with phony rhymes. Matsui hits a home run and we hear "A Thrilla from Godzilla." Alex Rodriguez hits a home run and we get "An A-Bomb from A-Rod." And when the Yankees win, he has this annoying habit of saying "The -ah-ah-ah-ah-ah Yankees win."

We shouldn't complain. We had Johnny Most as the voice of the Boston Celtics, who never, to my recollection, ever saw a legitimate foul called on a Celtic player. And always, always thought that opponent reactions to fouls were overblown. Yet we loved him (HAVLICEK STOLE THE BALL!!! HAVLICEK STOLE THE BALL!!; people were worried that he was headed for cardiac arrest. Man smoked many packs of cigarettes a day, which gave his voice more than just a hint of gravel).

   Anyway, the game. . . record crowd of 11,036 on hand at Legends Field for this one (soon to be named George Steinbrenner Field) and before announcers O'Kay and O'FLaherty could get through their commentary on how the Red Sox had picked up Bartolo Colon pretty easily and that he might prove to be a potent weapon for the Sox this season, Colon had loaded the bases. He failed to make it through the opening inning, following the bases-loaded situation by giving up a two RBI double to Hideki Matsui (who seems to have tamed his right shoulder 'twitch' at the plate this year; not completely, but a little) and a subsequent two-run single to Robinson Cano. It was 4-0, Yankees, when Francona pulled Colon out of there with two out in the first. He'd thrown 42 pitches in the first inning, compared to Andy Pettite's 14.

Enter Julian Tavares, who gets out of the first without further damage and then proceeds to 'plunk' Derek Jeter and give up a subsequent home run to Bobby Abreu in the second inning. 6-0, Yanks. Matsui drives another run in in the third and it's 7-0 before Boston responds. Chris Carter singles and then, Brandon Moss hits a long fly ball to left field. Damon's playing there and loses the ball in the sun. He's still looking for it when it drops just in front of the left field fence behind him and Moss ends up on second. Julio Lugo ground outs (nice play by Jeter), scoring Carter for the first Sox run.

With Pedroia at the plate, Pettite throws a wild pitch (arguably a passed ball), scoring Moss from third and it's 7-2.

Tavares gets the side in order in the bottom of the third and Youkilis opens the fourth inning with a home run (7-3). They yank Pettite and after Varitek gets on, Brandon Moss drives him in for the final Sox run. The Yankees add one in the bottom of the fourth when Abreu leads off with a double and Giambi singles him to third. Posada hits into a double play but scores Abreu. It's 8-4, Yankees and for all intents and purposes, the game is over. Substitutions ruled the day from that point and if the first four innings were a yawner, the last four were a sleeper.

Might have been an interesting game were it not for the first inning and the four runs charged to Colon. Remains to be seen whether this St. Patrick's Day performance was a fluke or a sign of things to come. It's subtle, but you can actually 'feel' the difference in the way the players go at a spring training game. They're relaxed. They're out there on the field to get a few swings in, throw a few pitches, get their throwing range from the out- and infield, enjoy the sunshine. You can see that nobody takes it all that seriously (the recent brawl with the Devil Rays, notwithstanding - did you hear that Reggie Jackson got fined $250 for going out on the field in that brawl?).

The Yankees are heading to Virginia Tech tomorrow (Tuesday) to play a game against that college club, in commemoration of the violence that took 33 lives exactly one year ago today. I happen to think it's a decent gesture on the part of the Yankees and though one might question how much commemoration might actually go into a ballgame (one has to assume that words will be spoken during some kind of pre-game ceremony), it's hard to argue with the move.

In the meantime, the Sox are gearing themselves up for their trip to Japan, where they'll play two exhibition games against Japanese clubs and then open their regular season there against the Oakland A's at the Tokyo Dome. It's got to be a draining trip, no matter how you look at it, and while the Sox in general and Francona in particular are already telling people that they're not going to use the trip as an excuse if they start the season 'slow,' you can bet it's going to have an effect, even if they do start the regular US season on the West Coast. Should be an interesting week.

Stay tuned