Sox Ring in Season

A collection of thoughts about yesterday’s Home Opener festivities:

Daisuke looked great. He was spotting his pitches, and keeping a very potent line-up off balance. He’s put together quite a stretch of good pitching ever since the first couple innings in Japan. If he can pitch like that against Detroit, that should bode well for his starts against other teams.

Overall, the pregame show was well done. It was slightly disappointing to see so much carryover from the 2005 ceremony, right down to the big 2004 Championship flag on the monster. It is always nice to see Russell and Orr though.

They did a much better job with the ring presentation itself this time. Right away, they had all the non-players move along very quickly. As great a job as I’m sure the visiting clubhouse attendant did, I don’t need to cheer him as he gets his ring. They had the staffers move right along, which was nice. It was also nice that they introduced the players by position. Lat time, it was by years of service. That meant that there was a long stretch of players who had less than a year of service. Abe Alvarez pitched was great in his one start, but a string of one-and-dones got lengthy. This way, stars and scrubs were spaced out much better. It would have been nice if they vocally announced each player though, so we didn’t need to keep turning to the jumbotron.

I hope the song they used when Papelbon got his ring becomes his new entrance song. The beat starts right out, and will really get things pumping every time he strolls to the mound. I’ve really got to find out the name of that song.

It was nice to see Bill Buckner back, but I think it continues to make a bigger deal out of him than he deserves. He was never shunned from Fenway…he’s been back a few times since he retired. So, to ask us to show him that he’s always welcome was pointless. Any decent fan never actually blamed him for anything personally anyway. His play was a convenient video with a decent “call” that could be played at a moment’s notice. Frankly, Stanley and Gedman should send Buckner a steak dinner every time that video is played. If not for that, their wild pitch/past ball that actually blew the lead would have been shown for the last 20+ years. But, if Bucker’s OK making a spectacle of himself, then so am I.

Why did we boo Edgar Renteria? What exactly did he do to make us carry a grudge? He wasn’t nearly that bad as a member of the Sox, and he made the last out of the 2004 World Series. Shouldn’t he be a hero?

It was nice of the red tailed hawk to make an appearance. The round of applause was richly deserved.

Please tell me that the Neil Diamond video was a one time thing.