Well that went well

The last time the Sox opened up the year in Cleveland, Jose Contreras’ wife decided to wait until that morning to hit him with divorce papers. Being the emotionally sensitive fella that he is, it was a little bit of a struggle for him to keep his personal life from affecting his game. I’m not trying to make any commentary on women being intentionally vindictive (I think my lovely fiancé would take issue with that), simply offering a possibility as to why the day didn’t go so well. In fact, the season didn’t go so well after that. The 2007 season pretty much followed the example of game 1 and the Sox turned in their worst season in recent memory. It goes without saying that this Opening Day went much better. Right out of the gates the Sox dared Hawk to drop the “don’t stop now boys…” as much as was humanly possible as Fausto Carmona and company had 2 TDs dropped on them in fairly rapid fashion. We saw what we can only hope is a return to TCQ, as the bearded one provided 5 RBIs and a long ball on a 4 for 5 day. The other Sox homerun came from Adam Dunn, who is probably the player we were next most eager to see homer. Every starter not named Rios got on the board, but considering the way he kept us afloat early last season, it’s certainly something we should be willing to forgive. All of that happened before the wheels threatened to come off. On a cold April afternoon, when pitchers are expected to be their best, the Sox staff played down to the competition. Buehrle went a few strong innings before having a little trouble, but once the bullpen entered it was open season for the Indians. After giving back a touchdown, the ship was righted and we came away with the win.

I have mixed emotions from the game. It was Opening Day. Opening Day sets the tone for the season. You would think just for the fans, but it seems the team is influenced as well. In 2007, a terrible start led to a terrible season. In 2005 a 1-0 game led to a season in which we overachieved behind strong pitching, winning more than our share of 1 run games. In 2008 we won ugly and managed to take the division in the same manner. If today is any indication, we’ve got a wild ride in front of us, with a lot of ugly games ending with a tally in the “W” column.

If any of you are like me, and I like to think you are, having today in the books is enough. I had a hard time not taking every person I encountered by the shoulders, shaking them with glee exclaiming, “it’s opening day! It all starts today!” The way I see it, we all walked down the street today smiling at strangers, and that’s the way I like it.