Opening Ceremonies

The Red Sox are in Oakland tomorrow night to restart the regular season. While the A’s were the “home” team for the series in Japan, this game will represent the Oakland home opener. Along with that distinction, comes all the ceremony that goes along with Opening Day. So, thus far, the Red Sox season has included the league-wide regular season opener in Japan, and the ceremony packed game on a Little League field in LA. Tomorrow, they get Oakland’s home opener. On Friday, they open a series against Toronto, with includes the Toronto home opener. And, finally, next Tuesday, they come to Fenway for their home opener and championship ring ceremony. Phew. Is this the defending World Champion baseball team, or Tito’s Traveling Circus? Are the Sox ever going to be able to concentrate on actual baseball? Forget the normal distractions that would come from a three city, three country road trip to start the regular season. The Sox players will have nightmares about lining up along the foul lines for introductions. This is the sort of thing that fans feared when/if they finally won a World Series. I bet the Cubs aren’t asked to make a personal appearance every three days. Wouldn’t it be nice to just play baseball again, and not be the face of baseball? Sox management needs to remember that they’re not in San Diego anymore. In Boston, the baseball sells itself. All you have to do is actually play baseball.