During normal winters, a life long Red Sox fan would suffer through until the middle of February when a little note would appear on the sports page. That note would read “Red Sox spring training equipment van left Yawkey Way for Florida”. In years gone by it would be a significant moment for a variety of reasons.. It would bring to an end the previous seasons disappointment and signify the beginning of a new round of chorus echoing this is “our year”. Of course it would also bring hope that another miserable cold snowy New England winter would soon come to an end.
This was a different kind of winter. We were no sooner basking in the glow of the Red Sox World Series Championship then before you knew it another Super Bowl trophy was being paraded through out the commonwealth. Some how that managed to break the habit of searching for the van departure date.
The off season seemed to me to be a bit placid. Under normal circumstances the Sox Nation would be aflame over the loss of the Dominican Dandy as well as Orlando Cabrera, Derek Lowe, Gabe Kapler and Dave Roberts. Theo was hardly second guessed in these decisions as he wore his mantle of success of a championship. That and the fact that he was extremely busy spending the money he had saved on Martinez and others by acquiring Edgar Renteria, Matt Clement, Wade Miller, David Wells and others.
Although there are some question marks in the acquisitions it is no more so than some of the questions marks that left. Did you really want to spend 60 million over 4 guaranteed years on Pedro Martinez?
So the equipment van went and then the pitchers and catchers arrives and now everybody is in full swing at spring training. I can feel the usual excitement of watching the new comers and speculating on the final team make up. The one very strange difference is that instead of me repeating the mantra “this is our year” I am in the strange position of saying let’s get two.
