Play ball!

I had all kinds of great plans to do my first-ever running diary (a la Bill Simmons) for the Red Sox' season opener in Japan this past Tuesday. I was going to get up for the 6 a.m. start, make myself some scrambled eggs with feta cheese and hot sauce on a sesame bagel (recent favorite), crack open some Sapporo and start typing.

Alas, it was not to be. I caught that nasty flu that's been circulating the Northeast. Except that mine came accompanied by the flu's friend, Mr. Vomit. Let's just say that the beer wasn't happening and I spent more time with my toilet than in front of my TV. Blast. Not exactly how I'd planned Opening Day.

But at least Opening Day happened. The Sox are back. This makes me happy. Now I have a reason to be paying for cable again. I watched as much as I could of both Japan games live, watched replays of the games that afternoon and highlights later on SportsCenter while I attempted (unsuccessfully) to stay coherent and write productively. You could say that I missed me some baseball.

You'd be correct.

I'm excited about this season. Sure, it's extremely hard to repeat, but I like our chance. It looks like Manny remembered that the season doesn't start in July this year, Papi is healthy, Lester and Bucholz are a year older, Dice-K's celebratory handshakes are set, Jacoby is making ladies swoon left and right and Paps is still bringing heat from the 'pen. We're good to go.

Only a couple things have me worried. Schilling being out hurt for most of the year doesn't help us. But, I do think it could be a blessing in disguise. Don't forget that he's missed time each of the past three seasons anyway. This way, we could potentially get him back and have him fresh for a stretch run. We just can afford to lose another starter or Bartolo "The Blimp" Colon could be seeing major innings on our mound and that kind of scares me.

Our catching situation gives reason for concern, as well. Tek is still Tek - he's the captain and he'll be great with the pitching staff. It's just that he's 35 and is wearing down. And to back him up, we have... Oh, that's right, we don't have anyone. We cut Wakefield's batterymate, Mirabelli and don't have an adequate replacement. Anyone want to place bets on the date we re-sign him? I'll take April 25th...

As long as we stay healthy, I like this year's team. I'm glad we didn't tinker too much, since there weren't many dramatic holes to fill. Our outfield is stacked right now (Crisp and Moss are more than adequate backups), too, which is good since J.D. Drew still could get hurt sneezing or trimming his goatee.

Predictions? Well, can any true Sox fan not predict finishing first in the A.L. East and not winning the World Series?

Of course not... so, there you go.

Yankees Suck.