And all these years later, the Fenway opener was an homage to Yaz, Pudge, Rico, Rooster, the Gold Dust Twins, and El Tiante who thrilled the Fenway masses at our ancient hardball cathedral a half-century ago.
If you are a baseball fan, be glad that you live in New England. Celebrate your fortunate place in the baseball universe. You reside in a special spot where this stuff still matters, where folks honor the past, and an early-April, nine-inning slop-fest stokes long-dormant fires and inspires irrational hope that maybe this is going to be one of those special seasons.
The 2025 Red Sox are a wholly pedestrian 4-4, unremarkable in every metric that nerds measure, and yet . . . there is something new, something different: A reason to believe.
“We got a good team and fans are responding to it,‘’ Boston manager Alex Cora said after Friday’s thrill-ride, three-hour, action-packed 13-9 victory over the estimable St. Louis Cardinals in the 114th Fenway opener.
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When the game was over, Trevor Story, who has known only injury, frustration and contention-illusion in a three-year sentence during Boston baseball’s 21st century Dark Ages, said, “Fenway was electric. The fans were on their feet the whole game. We love that kind of support.‘’
No doubt the standards of what constitutes a “good team” are wildly diluted in 2025, but this year’s Local Nine features a daily 1-9 lineup of infinite possibility with power, speed, contact, and Driveline-driven pledges to put the baseball in the air and strike out as many times as you want without consequence.
The result is a team that can go cold at any moment (they were allergic to the baseball with runners in scoring position in the final three game in Texas), but is also capable of batting around in the first inning and putting a 13-spot on the opposition as they did Friday.
Your 2025 Boston Red Sox at this hour are a .500 team, but have a right fielder (Wilyer Abreu) hitting .500 with three homers (thank you very much, Chaim Bloom), a rookie second baseman (Kristian Campbell) hitting .423, a high-priced Fenway wrecking-ball free agent (Alex Bregman) hitting .314, and a pricey, chubby DH (Rafael Devers), who had two more hits yesterday and is feeling the love from a Fenway fandom pledging not to let a hideous first week dissolve seven seasons of savant slugging.
“Today was a special day,‘’ Story said after cracking two hits, including a first-inning three run homer against the Cards.
Story has been overpaid, overrated, always-hurt suspect in his three-plus seasons in Boston, but it’s possible he could yet be the player the Sox hoped they were getting the Bloom hired him in desperation before the 2022 season.
Friday at the yard was a special day in Boston sports lore as the heroes of 1975 returned for a final bow and a last loud roar from the venerable fan base. Captain Carl Yastrzemski, the 85-year-old greatest living Red Sox player, led the soldiers of ‘75 across the left field lawn (“No running,‘’ Fisk reminded his old teammates) in a pre-game ceremony that boosted the spirits of an aging Red Sox Nation and demonstrated to the young’uns (players and fans) that all that was once good could be good again.
Yastrzemski lobbed a 25-foot ceremonial first pitch to Cora and told the Sox manager, “I’ll be pulling for you.‘’
After the ceremony, which included a moving video montage honoring the late Luis Tiant, Yaz went directly to the players’ parking lot off Van Ness Street where his black SUV awaited.
Traditionally wheels up before the game’s first pitch, Yaz was delayed for a moment waiting for a Sharpie after Rice requested Yaz sign and donate his vintage No. 8 game jersey, circa 1975.
After signing the jersey for Rice, and leaving it behind, Yaz got into his chariot and was bound for the Kowloon before Walker Buehler’s first pitch. Like death and taxes, Yaz peeling out of the player’s parking lot remains one of life’s certainties.
Behind him, Captain Carl left a three-hour sports smorgasbord of 29 hits, three errors, 11 pitchers, 15 runners left on base, one goofy fan inteference charge, and a 13-9 Red Sox win.
“We have that kind of offense,‘’ said Cora. “We didn’t stop. We needed every run.‘’
World Series rivals in 1946, 1967, 2004, and 2013, the Red Sox and Cardinals will be back at it Saturday at 4:10 p.m., then take it to national television Sunday night at 7:10 p.m. For the first time in six years, they are worth watching.
