I N T R O D U C T I O N
I love baseball and I will always love it. My favorite time begins when the umpire says “play ball” and ends with the final out.
I have never been a big fan of the politics of the game. I don’t particularly care for pregame predictions and postgame comments. I don’t care about contracts. I don’t care about collective bargaining agreements. I just like the game.
When I first wrote this section, the ground was blanketed with snow, but people were already talking about the beginning of spring training in a few weeks. People here in Red Sox Nation are so much in love with baseball that they’ll tune in to the annual spring training exhibition game between the Sox and Boston college students in March. I guess it brings hope at the end of the harsh New England winter that spring has arrived.
One more thing: The first edition of this book was published in the spring of 2004. Since it came out, the Red Sox have been World Series champions twice. Coincidence? I think not.
Baseball is part of the fabric of our lives. It’s a love that is handed down from father to son, mother to daughter. Baseball was huge with my father and my grandfather when I was a kid in Somerset, Massachusetts.
All of us cherish the first time we went to a major league ball game. I remember the first time I walked up the ramp inside Fenway Park and stepped out into the grandstand. The first thing that I saw was the wall, a huge green thing. And then there was the beautiful grass and the colors of the players’ uniforms. I was stunned. I guess I still am.
It bothers me when people say baseball is a boring game. It’s not boring if you learn how to watch the game closely, and that’s what this book is all about. If it really were so boring, I don’t think you would see 35,000 people at Fenway for every game and millions tuning in on television and radio. People love watching the great players play.
“Jerry Remy is an extraordinary broadcaster. He makes the victories sweeter and soothes me when the Red Sox suffer a defeat. He’s a great analyst, but the best part is that you feel like you’re having a beer with a friend while you’re watching the game.”
THOMAS C.WERNER, CHAIRMAN, BOSTON RED SOX
In recent years they’ve cheered for pitching stars like Curt Schilling, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Josh Beckett, Tim Wakefield, and Pedro Martínez. Today’s fans have been thrilled by stellar players like Manny Ramírez, David Ortiz, Jason Varitek, and Mike Lowell.
And Fenway still echoes with the ovations for Jim Rice, Carl Yazstrzemski, Carlton Fisk, and Ted Williams. And the record books tell the stories of fabled Boston players like Cy Young, Tris Speaker, and Joe Cronin.
When we talk about a place called Red Sox Nation, we’re talking more about a state of mind than a set of states; the Red Sox hear the cheers of the faithful almost as much on the road as they do in friendly Fenway. And New England Sports Network (NESN) broadcasts have moved beyond local cable in New England and are carried by satellite signals across the country.
No matter where these fans live, their connection to the Boston Red Sox is deeply embedded in their hearts and minds. It’s a wondrous mixture of hope . . . and longing.
There are going to be so many ups and downs over 162 games and six months of playing: wins, losses, injuries, players upset at the manager, the manager upset with the players, superstars who refuse to talk to the press, and superstars who talk too much.
In football you have one game on Sunday and then it is all preparation until the next game a week later. Baseball changes every day.
During the off-season people ask me all the time who’s going to be in the lineup on opening day. First of all, I have no idea what kind of trades the team will make and who will look good in spring training. And then three days into the season, the opening day roster could be thrown out the window if a rookie gets hot or a proven star breaks down.
Over the course of a season, we don’t know if our star shortstop is going to get hurt or if our superstar pitcher’s shoulder is going to fall apart. We don’t know if a guy with a great career record as a hitter is inexplicably going to have a terrible season, or if some unheralded rookie is going to tear the cover off the ball for the entire season and take the job of a veteran. These are the days of the baseball soap opera.
While “Hail to the Chief” blasted through the speakers at Fenway Park, I threw out the first pitch before Game 1 of the American League Division Series in 2007. It was my first official act as the first President of Red Sox Nation.
Photo by Brita Meng Outzen