...I don't care if we never get back.
So it's root, root, root for the Home Team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes you're out
At the old ball game!

First thing I noticed about today is that it's Friday the 13th. Right. What could go wrong on a Friday the 13th, you ask?

Well, for one thing, today is the Home Opener game for the Boston Red Sox (against Tampa Bay Rays). I am a neo-fanatic (or neo-fan if you will) of the Red Sox baseball team. I only came to this after most of my life had passed already. Maybe the last 10 years or so. They've had their ups and downs, but in the last decade they won the World Series twice and have seemed like a super team - that is, before last year.

Last year we started our season with a 2-10 record. That's TWO wins and TEN losses. Oh, that hurt. But we tuned in each night and watched the games, like any faithful Redsox Nation fan would do, but it wasn't always easy. Late night games (and oh, those long Extra Innings!) necessitated finishing the games on the radio in my bed in the wee hours. A loss would throw me into a tizzy, and I wouldn't sleep at all after that. We did pretty well once we got going last year, but then we fell apart in the fall and lost it in the end.

Then things really started to unravel.

Our manager was fired, our general manager left the team, and several players are gone now too. The team is so different now that I don't even know a lot of the players any more. I have to have a web page with the roster of players up beside me whilst watching my own team play, just so I can keep up!

So today, on a Friday the 13th, we are beginning our new season with a 1-5 record (we've only played "away" games so far). Only ONE win so far. Here we go again....

We have a new manager and general manager, new players I don't know yet, a pitching staff that seems less than ideal (to me anyway), and I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I'm actually looking forward to seeing Daisuke (or "Dice-K" as we call him) Matsuzaka return from his year-long stint on the disabled list and Tommy John surgery. I didn't much care for him when he was pitching for us before he was injured, but at this point, I'm willing to give him another try. Come back Dice-K! We need you!

I've also just learned that today, the Home Opener, the game will be starting around 2 p.m. and that around 1:30 when the festivities at Fenway Park begin, there will be some F-16 jets doing a fly-over (like last year???), so I'd better jot this down so when they come flying over our house, which is only about 15 miles from Boston, I won't go nuts like I did last year and wonder if we are under attack again. Fighter jets = Baseball game opener. Got it.

So, I'll be home this afternoon, all afternoon, faithfully watching my team trying to end this losing streak and get the 2012 baseball season rolling along...

Fenway Park, Boston, MA




Cheers, and Go Sox!

Bex

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"There are only two seasons - winter and baseball."

[Bill Veeck]