Empyreal Environs

Game 1: April 7, 2009
Rays	3	L: James Shields (0-1)	0-1, 1 game losing streak
Red Sox	5	W: Josh Beckett (1-0) H: Justin Masterson (1) S: Jonathan Papelbon (1)	1-0, 1 game winning streak
Highlights: Beckett is on pace for 30 wins, Masterson for 42 holds, Papelbon for 58 saves, Pedroia for 152 homers, and the Red Sox for 162 wins. It’s a typical damp and dreary New England April whose only brightness is baseball.

“Gross,” wrote my friend over IM. At that moment Jonathan Papelbon struck out Gabe Gross on a fastball caressing the outside edge of home plate.

He wasn’t talking about the Rays’ right fielder but about seeing king crabs promenaded on plates at his favorite Baltimore eatery. I chided him for being squeamish about food that too closely recalled the animals from whence they came. I had a friend who wouldn’t eat chicken with bones because they evoked the life that was so casually plucked for the sake of a snack.

And yet meat molded into unnatural cylinders enfolded in buns of bleached flour are blithely consumed. Especially today, Opening Day, which for the first time since 2002 is at Fenway. It took them seven years to forget that starting the season in Boston is a bad idea. But despite the rain and chill the mantra still rings true: baseball, hot dogs, apple pie.

Speaking of America and white bread, Keith Lockhart and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus’s rendition of “God Bless America” only lacked a bubble machine to recreate The Lawrence Welk Show on the Green Monster.

Josh Beckett had a faltering moment in the sixth but that was washed away by his ten strikeouts. He will forever be linked in my mind to Mike Lowell, whom the Marlins thought they were foisting upon the Red Sox. Lowell signifies to me the front office’s conscious effort to change the tenor of the clubhouse. Just compare 2004 to 2007: the idiots’ World Series MVP was Manny Ramirez while the most recent playoff MVP was Lowell. It’s like comparing AIG executives to Jack Welch. There was tumult and disaster surrounding Ramirez but he was still getting paid while Lowell guided his the team through that turmoil.

I can’t wait to see the Cumberland Farms area on the right field roof. Cupholders and cushions? I’m there! I always thought the space in that section was poorly utilized; there were about four seats per row, making it seem like it was mostly aisles rather than seating. I’m dubious about the wooden terrace, but like the refreshed logo and new road uniforms I’ll probably warm up to it.

Just remember: there’s no smoking in Fenway.