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Play Ball

Just a few short months ago, on a cool October morning, my six year old son woke up and asked me if the Red Sox had won the night before.  I told him, “No, the season is over.”  “But why, Dad?”  At that moment a tear welled in my eye.  I did not know if it was a tear of joy for passing the torch to a new generation of Sox fan or sadness for handing my son a life sentence without parole.

Spring training is here.  Just a few short weeks to the home opener.  Hope is in the air.  I close my eyes and can taste a Fenway Frank being washed down with an ice cold beer.  I hear the call of a vendor “Peanuts Heah” and the crack of Big Papi’s bat.  I laugh with the crowd as Manny reappears from inside the Green Monster.  I jump from my seat as Josh Beckett strikes out A-Rod with the bases loaded and the game on the line.  Dare I think ahead to a post season rotation of Schilling, Beckett, Papelbon and Wells!