For those of you that either know me or have read Mahrtian Encounters before, you know that I follow the Red Sox to an unhealthy degree. So yesterday being Opening Day, I naturally wore my Jason Varitek jersey and listened to Joe Castiglione and Jerry Trupiano call the Sox's 7-3 win over the Texas Rangers.
It was an ideal start to the season after a rocky spring training, with great pitching from Curt Schilling and the offense I've come to expect from David Ortiz and Varitek. Nonetheless, something still nagged me to no end: how much this team has changed from that magical band of idiots of 2004.
That year will be forever remembered as the year when the Sox won the World Series and exorcised an 86-year old curse, but some of the moments from that season were so sublime they're best remembered on their own.
Take the ninth inning of Game 4 of the American League Championship Series against the Yankees. Bill Mueller drove a single up the middle to score Dave Roberts, who had stolen second after pinch-running for Kevin Millar, who had drawn a walk against Mariano Rivera moments earlier.
It was one of the more memorable sequences in Red Sox history. But there's something funny when I reminisce about it: none of those three players are in Boston to start this season. Mueller now plays third for the Dodgers, Roberts patrols center field for the Padres and Millar takes up space for the Orioles. From the perspective of Theo Epstein, I can understand the rationale behind this. All three players did what they had to do to contribute to Boston's success, and once they had served their purpose it was time to say goodbye to them. But the team feels just a little emptier without them.
The list of memorable guys from that team doesn't end with those three. Derek Lowe, Pedro Martinez, Johnny Damon, Gabe Kapler, Doug Mirabelli, Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz all captured my admiration, and all have said goodbye to the Ole Town Team. The majority of the key cogs from that championship squad make their addresses elsewhere nowadays, and it's less than two years later. Of course we still have holdovers like Schill, Ortiz, Varitek, Manny Ramirez and Tim Wakefield serving as daily reminders for those glory days, but they seem to be all who remain.
Epstein went out and got some very respectable players to fill the gaps, but the changes have come so suddenly that I've been caught off-guard. Part of me still wants to see Mueller holding down the sixth spot in the lineup with his awkward inside-out swing, hear Millar chime in with his idiotic comments on a daily basis, watch Mirabelli behind the plate trying to corral a Tim Wakefield knuckleball and make unending comments concerning Damon's hirsute appearance. Unfortunately the only way I can do that is by watching "Faith Rewarded" for the 20th time.
As the season progresses it won't matter to me who's playing for the Red Sox, just as long as those players help the team win 95-100 games and reach the postseason just as I've come to expect since 2003.
I'm already a fan of Coco Crisp for his name and his jaw-dropping ability in the field, and something tells me new faces like Mike Lowell, Mark Loretta and Josh Beckett will have no trouble winning me over. The mantra of any general manager this day and age is that change is necessary even for a winning ball club. What the GMs never mention - although it is surely implied - is that it's never easy, especially for the fans.
Due to his Asian bloodlines, Chris Mahr '07 can never make unending comments about his own hirsute appearance.
