My collective impressions of the new controls.

There's plenty of room on the Tobin Bridge these days.

I don't know what to make of it.

At this point, for every season that I can remember, the crowd of Red Sox fans lined up ready to jump into the Mystic River (for one reason or another) is usually 15' deep by the end of Spring Training.

This year it's different. The sound of the crickets is deafening.

I guess we are seeing the difference that a World Series Trophy makes.

This year (so far) the naysayers have stayed away. Their ranks appear to be down to a bare minimum, maybe one or two doomsday-predictors looking around for anyone who's sympathetic to their cause. But the odd thing is, nobody seems to be biting.

Given some of the news coming out of Fort Myers these days you would think their bandwagon would be full:

1. Curt Schilling's ankle is still bothering him and he's expected to start the season on the disabled list and not be activated to pitch until sometime mid-April.
2. David Wells finished a shaky Spring with a 7.94 ERA.
3. Pitchers Matt Clement and John Halama didn't look too impressive either.
4. Righty Wade Miller is recovering from a rotator cuff injury and hasn't thrown off a mound since last August.

All of this is easily enough ammo to get your typical, off-the-shelf Red Sox fan to start popping blood pressure pills and mutter curses under their breath.

I think that we are in that so-called "Honeymoon Period" you hear about. At least I know that's where I'm at. My blood pressure is just fine these days.

I'm sure you've heard the mantra of "In Bill We Trust" that Patriots fans everywhere have adopted for their favorite coach. I'm not saying that he's on the same level as Bill Belichick, but I am willing to give Red Sox manager Terry Francona the benefit of the doubt. I will place my trust in his decisions.

For the time being.

Which is a big thing for fans to give up to Red Sox managers. We've seen some truly insane managerial calls in our days (Buckner in Game 6, Pedro left in too long in the 8th inning, etc) just to name a few.

Honestly, say if over the 4th of July weekend I see Terry make a big gamble that doesn't work out, I won't get too worked up.

I just have to sit back and remember ALCS Game 7 on October 20th, and of course, World Series Game 4 on October 27th.

So much was washed away by the end of those 8 days in the fall of 2004.

I have no doubt that again, at some point, fans will return to the Tobin Bridge and have to take a number to get a spot on the rail.

But until that day comes, for me and countless Red Sox fans, it's Summertime.

And the livin's easy.

I watched Miller's Crossing last night:

Verna: What're you chewin' over?
Tom Reagan: Dream I had once. I was walkin' in the woods, I don't know why. Wind came up and blew me hat off.
Verna: And you chased it, right? You ran and ran, finally caught up to it and you picked it up. But it wasn't a hat anymore and it changed into something else, something wonderful.
Tom Reagan: Nah, it stayed a hat and no, I didn't chase it. Nothing more foolish than a man chasin' his hat.

I must say I wholeheartedly agree with that last line.

I'm going to try to use it in conversation sometime this weekend.

I bet whoever I drop it on will be like "Wow, that is so true".

Or they could be like "Wow, I never knew you were such a frickin' jackass".

Citizens of Tokyo! RUN!
There's a giant Maggie tearing up the city!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

When I turned on the news this morning they were showing a live shot from a helicopter of a state trooper who was giving a field sobriety test to a driver on I-93 south of Boston.

This was at 6:30 in the morning.

Nice.

Sometime last night my hit counter for this site hit the 10K mark. Time for an oil change.

6 more inches of snow fell last night. The accompanying wind hit 50mph a couple of times. Got up an hour early today to dig out. Another storm is on-deck for Friday/Saturday.

I love living in New England.

BOSTON, MA (March 3, 2005) - The FleetCenter has a new name: TD Banknorth Garden.

TD Banknorth Inc. reached an agreement with arena owner Delaware North Cos. to put its name on the home of the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins, the companies announced Thursday.

Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed, but published reports citing anonymous sources familiar with the deal said TD Banknorth would pay between $5 million and $6 million per year.