Truck Day

I’m writing this on Friday, February 1st.

So I don’t know whether Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on Saturday. So I don’t know whether we’ll be having an early spring, or hunkering down for another 6 weeks of winter.

And I don’t know whether the New England Patriots went ahead and ticked off every football fan in the world who doesn’t live in New England by winning the Super Bowl. (Hey, I’m a homer, and I’m a sports fan. So of course I hope they will have won. But I did just read about Patriots’ owner Bob Kraft heaping praise on both Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch in an interview on Fox. So for a couple of moments there I was actively rooting for the Rams. Then I remembered that both Krafty and the owner of the Rams contributed $1M to Trump’s inauguration swindle, so I guess it’s a matter of picking your DB. And in that case, I have to come down on the side of the Patriots.)

Anyway, today’s local sportin’ news will either be taken up with “Yay, us! Six Super Bowl Rings since 2002! All hail TB12!” or  postmortems about the death of the dynasty, the gray hairs inTB12’s five-o’clock shadow, etc. In either case, there will excessive coverage of things football.

But in truth, the real news for February 4th is that it’s Truck Day, the day when the Red Sox equipment heads south for Spring Training.

Workers will begin to load the 53-foot truck at 7 a.m. on Van Ness Street (neat Gate D). It will leave for Fort Myers around 12 p.m.

Equipment that will be loaded into the truck, per the Red Sox, includes 20,400 baseballs, 1,100 bats, 200 batting gloves, 200 batting helmets, 320 batting practice tops, 160 white game jerseys, 300 pairs of pants, 400 t-shirts, 400 pairs of socks, 20 cases of bubble gum and 60 cases of sunflower seeds. (Source: MassLive)

I don’t know whether the truck will see its shadow or not. And I won’t be hanging around Gate D to see it depart. But this is always a good day.

It means that pitchers and catchers will be showing up in another week or so. And then the rest of the team. Which means that by the end of the month there’ll be actual games to watch – or at least to follow.

There’ll be bubble gum to chew, and sunflower seeds to crack and spit out.

What’s not to like?

The season starts on March 28th, with the Red Sox playing in Seattle. Because whether Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow or not, you’d be insane to schedule a home opener in Boston in March. And even more insane to go to Fenway to watch such a misbegotten game in person.

The Red Sox open at home on April 9th, against the Toronto Blue Jays. Much as I enjoy opening day, April 9th is still plenty chancy, weather-wise. Plus it’s impossible to get tickets for a game in which the Olde Towne Team will raise their fourth World Series Championship Banner since 2004. Almost but not quite as good as those five or six Super Bowls the Pats have racked up since 2002. But far more enjoyable to baseball fan me.

I will be watching that opening day game on TV, but will be at Fenway on April 15th, for what is my favorite game of the season: the Red Sox Patriots Day game. This is an altogether wonderful event. The game starts at 11:05 a.m. and, as everyone familiar with Boston geography is aware, Fenway Park is just steps away from the route of the Boston Marathon, which is run on Patriots Day. (The security since the bombing is something of a drag since the Marathon Bombing, but Patriots Day remains pretty much the best day of the year here as far as I’m concerned: Red Sox + Marathon + crazy, oddball holiday that’s pretty much ours and ours alone + promise of spring.)

The Marathon used to be scheduled so that by the time the game ended, the elite runners would be passing through Kenmore Square (just down from Fenway Park). For some reason – too crazy a confluence, I guess, not to mention faster elite runners – the elite runners will have already fleet-footed it by. But we’ll still see some pretty good runners – the kind of runners that Bostonians are actually likely to know in person.

Last year, this game was called on account of completely miserable weather. I have a friend who’s run 35 Bostons, and he told me that the 2018 edition was the worst of the worst. Rain, cold, wind…

The rescheduled Patriots Day game was played in May, under infinitely better conditions. Still, I’m hoping for decent weather this year. Fingers crossed for sunny and in the low 70’s. I can dream, can’t I?

So while, depending on the Super Bowl outcome, many New Englanders will be sitting around today in a state of elation or dejection, win or lose, I’m all in for Truck Day.

It’s only been a few months since the Red Sox 2018 season ended on October 28th with our boys winning the World Series. But it seems like an eternity.

I am so ready to Play Ball!