We Predictiate the 2007 Season! And Opening Day thoughts.
Hope springs eternal and all that. Today, for the 106th time, a Boston Americans spinner hurls the orb towards an opposing batsman, who stands at the dish with murderous intent in his eye, no doubt. In that memorable 01 season, the American’s didn’t even start their best pitcher, as 25-year-old rookie Win Kellum (20 career wins, 2 with Boston) got the nod over Denton Young against the Baltimore Orioles (the future New York Yankees).
The Orioles got the best of the Americans on that day, and actually swept the opening series, taking the second game from Cy Young.
What I’m saying is that opening day has evolved from something where a oldish (especially for the turn of the century) rookie would get the start to an event that just feels different than other games. Opening Day has a habit of sticking out in your head, even as other games kinda run together…I might not remember who wins the Boston Marathon every year (a Kenyan), but I almost always remember the start from Hopkington.
Here are my five most memorable (not favorite really, but most memorable) Red Sox Opening Days.
5. 2000 Boston Beats Seattle, Scores No More Runs the Rest of The Year
See number 1 on this list, as Pedro pitched the same, it was at the same time and the result was the same. The only difference was it was in Seattle and not Oakland.
I remember this game because I thought maybe Sports Illustrated got one right. They picked the Red Sox to win the World Series that year after two years of making it to the playoffs, and losing to a better team. As it turned out, the only Red Sox that hit all summer were Nomar Garciaparra and Carl Everett and they finished 12th in the American League in runs scored.
4. 1995 No Clemens, Sox Beat the Twins 9-0 at Fenway
The strike was over, but there was still a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. Fenway still had 33,000 people in the stands for the late-April matchup.
Even though this amounted to a late Spring Training start, Roger Clemens was hurt, and the Sox were coming off a crappy 1994 (everyone panic!!!) the opener of the 1995 season was a harbinger of things to come…it kicked off a season that insured that the Boston didn’t really need to be saved from the strike (their attendance was actually higher in 95 than 94). As for the game itself, the Sox touched Scott Erickson for two runs, and then notched seven runs off Carl Willis and Vince Horseman. Aaron Sele was only out there for five innings and 65 pitches, but didn’t allow a run (obviously) and only allowed two baserunners…one hit and one walk.
3. 2003 Closer By Committee Deemed Failure
The great part about this game was that my girlfriend (who now would never, ever do this…warrants mentioning) would watch baseball with me but flip back and forth between something she had more interest in. So we almost missed the last part of this game because she was slow getting over from American Idol.
As it turns out, the ban of my popular culture existence would have been a welcome change to the result of this match against the Devil Rays, as a Pedro start was wasted by Alan Embree and Chad Fox giving up five runs in the bottom of the ninth. A game that should have been won 4-1 was instead lost 6-4. Most of the damage was done by Embree, giving up 3 of the runs without recording an out, with Fox getting two outs, walking Marlon Anderson (as he was prone to do) and giving up a three run walkoff to Carl Crawford. Of course, the failing wasn’t Embree’s or Fox’s, it was the matchup bullpen ideology. The next season, the Red Sox won the World Series using a modified version of same.
2. 1989 Sox Lose 5-4 to the Orioles in 11 innings
This was the first OD I was permitted to watch. I was 8 years old, and my mom let me stay home from second grade, mostly because I nagged the hell out of her until she said yes. I was excited because I was too young to understand just how badly the A’s beat the Sox in the last ALCS, and I just knew that the Sox would extract their vengeance on a team that lost 21 games to open the season the year before.
The most memorable about this game for me (other than it popping my cherry) was that with runners on the corners (I looked it up, Randy Milligan on first, Mickey Tettleton on third), Joe Morgan moved Ellis Burks to left center, Dwight Evans to right center, and Mike Greenwell to right behind second base (in the infield). And then took out groundballer Bob Stanley and put in Mike Smithson. Craig Worthington singled sharply to centerfield, Tettleton walked home, and the Red Sox dropped their first four games and essentially sleep walked through the season.
1. 1998 Pedro Makes His Red Sox Debut, wins 2-0.
Despite being now 17 years old, there was no way I could have watched this one. The game started at 10:30pm over here on the East Coast, so I had to set the VCR, and preyed no one talked about the game at school the next day. Luckly, all my school yard chums were in the same predicament. It was actually kind of funny…we were all baseball freaks and no one dared mention Opening Day.
The next day, the school was a-buzz with how Pedro Martinez shut down the Oakland offense. The game itself was fairly uninspiring, if you like hitting, but he notched 11 strikeouts in his 7 innings. He actually had a perfect game going until the 4th when Ben Grieve finally broke through with a single with two outs. The A’s pitcher was Tom Candiotti, starting in his 67th MLB season.
We give you the Gregg Easterbrook ironically named “100% Incorrect or Your Money Back” guarantee for our predictions.
Zach:
AL East Division Winner: Boston Red Sox
AL Central Division Winner: Cleveland Indians
AL West Division Winner: Los Angeles Angels
AL Wildcard: Toronto Blue Jays
NL East Division Winner: Philadelphia Phillies
NL Central Division Winner: Chicago Cubs
NL West Division Winner: Los Angeles Dodgers
NL Wildcard: New York Mets
AL Champion: Boston Red Sox
NL Champion: New York Mets
World Series Champion: Boston Red Sox
AL Cy Young: C.C. Sabathia
AL MVP: Vernon Wells
AL Rookie of the Year: Diasuke Matsuzaka
AL Comeback Player of the Year: Jhonny Peralta
AL Manager of the Year: Eric Wedge
AL First Manager Fired: Joe Torre
NL Cy Young: Chris Young
NL MVP: Jose Reyes
NL Rookie of the Year: Troy Tulowitzki
NL Comeback Player of the Year: Randy Johnson
NL Manager of the Year: Ned Yost
NL First Manager Fired: Jerry Narron
Jimmy:
AL East Division Winner: New York
AL Central Division Winner: Detroit
AL West Division Winner: Anaheim
AL Wildcard: Boston
NL East Division Winner: Philly
NL Central Division Winner: Milwaukee
NL West Division Winner: LA
NL Wildcard: Cubs
AL Champion: Boston
NL Champion: Philly
World Series Champion: Philly
AL Cy Young: Johan Santana
AL MVP: Manny Ramirez
AL Rookie of the Year: Daisuke Matsuzaka
AL Comeback Player of the Year: Sammy Sosa
AL Manager of the Year: Ron Washington
AL First Manager Fired: Eric Wedge
NL Cy Young: Carlos Zambrano
NL MVP: Alfonso Soriano
NL Rookie of the Year: Troy Tulowitzki
NL Comeback Player of the Year: Barry Bonds
NL Manager of the Year: Sweet Lou
NL First Manager Fired: Jerry Narron
Jeff:
AL East Division Winner: New York
AL Central Division Winner: Cleveland (in the Maple Street Press preview, I picked Minnesota. I changed my mind).
AL West Division Winner: Oakland
AL Wildcard: Boston
NL East Division Winner: New York
NL Central Division Winner: Milwaukee
NL West Division Winner: Los Angeles
NL Wildcard: Philadelphia
AL Champion: Cleveland
NL Champion: Los Angeles
World Series Champion: Cleveland
AL Cy Young: Johan Santana
AL MVP: Mark Teixeira
AL Rookie of the Year: Alex Gordon
AL Comeback Player of the Year: Sammy Sosa
AL Manager of the Year: Ron Washington
AL First Manager Fired: Ozzie Guillen
NL Cy Young: Chris Carpenter
NL MVP: Albert Pujols
NL Rookie of the Year: Chris Young (outfielder, not pitcher)
NL Comeback Player of the Year: Barry Bonds
NL Manager of the Year: Ned Yost
NL First Manager Fired: Clint Hurdle
Don’t forget the DP ball that Nomar botched in the 9th inning of the 2003 game that would have ended it.