Hope Always Rises In April

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Now is the best time to write about my beloved Boston Red Sox. They remain undefeated. Of course, they have only played two games, and today’s game was rained out. So the streak continues. As I do every April, I printed out their schedule and tacked it to the wall in my workspace, so I can keep up. Every morning from now through September, I will go to their website to see how the Sox fared the day before. I am already planning a trip to Houston in mid-June, when they’ll face the Astros. That will also require a stop at City Acre Brewing, owned by my son-in-law and daughter, for a few brews and brunch. I’m salivating at the prospect.

It does not look like we are headed to Boston for our annual summer pilgrimage. We are likely heading toward the West Coast for a road trip from San Francisco north on Highway 101. I have never been to San Francisco so that voyage is long past due taking off the bucket list. I have always wanted to see the redwoods.

Watching the Red Sox won’t be the same without the looming presence of David Ortiz — Big Papi — who retired last year after a stellar career and three World Series titles. Big Papi is a dead-lock cinch for the Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible. To compensate, the Sox have the hottest prospect in the major leagues in Anthony Benintendi, who won the opening game with a three-run homer. Benintendi played college ball at the University of Arkansas before the Sox drafted him two years ago and gave him a $3.6 million signing bonus. It is looking like they will get their money’s worth out of this 22-year-old, playing Fenway’s famed left field, once inhabited by such greats as Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Rice. When we watched a game in Fenway last August, Ortiz slammed a run scoring double, and Benintendi had a marvelous night. Transition, and the game goes on.

I examined this season’s roster. Of the baker’s dozen pitchers on the roster, only two names were familiar. Of the remaining positions, I recognized at most a half-dozen of the players. I admit I do not follow the team as closely as the truly fanatical among the Red Sox nation. But it is always jarring to me when I realize the extent major league teams swap players from one season to another, looking for that magic formula that will keep them playing well into October.

This season marks a half-century since the year of the Impossible Dream, when the team went from next-to-last to clinching the pennant on the last game of the season. As I have recounted, my dad, brother Scott, best friend Bruce Courtemanche and I were in Fenway on the next-to-last day, when the Sox beat the Twins to clinch a tie. Yaz won the Triple Crown that year, leading in batting average, home runs and runs batted in. That feat has only been duplicated once since, in 2012 when Miguel Cabrera did it. One of my prized possessions is a ball autographed by Yaz, with the inscription “TC 1967.” It sits on my Red Sox shrine shelf, along with a recently acquired Big Papi bobblehead doll.

This could be the season I shell out the $24.99 monthly fee to watch the Red Sox on mlb.com. But that will not occur until August at the earliest. I have seen my team swoon too many times in the heat of summer to truly start getting excited, until the dog days arrive and they’re still a playoff contender.

Now that the glow of the Patriots’ incredible comeback in the Super Bowl has somewhat faded, I have shelved the Pats’ cap and pulled my blue cap with the red “B” on it for my daily walks. The other day a fellow was doing yard work as I walked by. He noticed the cap and stopped me, a fellow native New Englander eager to talk to another member of the Nation. Invariably, when in Austin I’ll hear someone yell “Go Sox!” as I walk by wearing the cap.

I like that. There are more of us who have crossed into Texas than you think.

I sure miss Big Papi, though.

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