Five Swings: Opening Night

Let's take our cuts and see what happens.


1. "You're never as good as you look when you win or as bad as you look when you lose." One game doesn't make a season, but you know that Sox fans will overreact to whatever happens tonight. The corollary has always remained, "momentum only lasts as long as the next day's starting pitcher." 


2. Sellouts are forever. Will there be empty seats (not unsold tickets) as ticket brokers have to unload tickets as face value? I believe I read that overall major league attendance fell off six percent last year during the recession that spread to professional sports. 


3. Victor Martinez hasn't had a full season with the Red Sox. The past three seasons in April, V-Mart has been .347/.410/.511/.921. Jason Varitek the past three Aprils has been .254/.332/.456/.788. How much will Varitek play and will it be mostly against LHP as his three years splits are .821 versus .687 for left and right-handed pitching. 


4. Ground control to Major Tom. The Red Sox have taken a beating about the condition of the infield over the years. Here's a quote from Dustin Pedroia, “Yeah, it took a bad hop,” he said with blood gushing from his right knee from the dive. “Our infield [stinks]. It’s the worst in the game. I’m not lying about that. That is true. It took a bad hop and I just tried to put my body in front of it to get an out.”


I can't find any systematic rating of field conditions in baseball. Yes, we understand that the field conditions are the same for both teams. Anybody got that?


5. Whether report. The Sox and Yanks have a glorious day for baseball. Somewhere I saw the last time the Sox last played the Yankees in an opening day game that lasted 2:33. I'll take the over on that one (length of game) for tonight...