Coolbaugh: Celebrating life and human spirit trump baseball on Red Sox’s Opening Day at Fenway taken BSJ Headquarters (Red Sox)

(Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports)

Apr 9, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Opening day ceremonies at Fenway Park before a game between the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles.

Red Sox

Coolbaugh: Celebrating life and human spirit trump baseball on Red Sox’s Opening Day at Fenway

By Gethin Coolbaugh

Apr 10, 2024 • 11:52 am

0comment-bubble

There are plenty of days on the calendar to lead a column with talk about the game of baseball.

Not this one. Not the day after an Opening Day that meant much more regarding matters off the field than what took place on it.

Tuesday’s home opener at Fenway Park will, and should, be remembered as far more than one game out of 162. 

It will be remembered as the day a city showed its gratitude for two champions in life, Tim and Stacy Wakefield, and a beloved group of champion ballplayers whose victories defined a city and an era of success unlike any other in history.

The Wakefields and the 2004 World Series title-winning Boston Red Sox are worthy of celebration — yesterday, today, and forevermore.

There may not be a more special moment this season than when Brianna Wakefield, the daughter of Tim and Stacy, threw out a ceremonial first pitch to her dad’s longtime teammate and current game-planning coordinator and catching coach Jason Varitek. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a moment that belongs in the Red Sox Hall of Fame — right where her father’s name will live on in glory, and where her mother’s should, too.

“Beautiful moments from our fans and for our family,” Varitek said afterward. “I don’t think Brianna would have given anybody else a choice. She made sure last night, she said ‘You are catching, right?’ (I said) ‘Yeah. I’m in the bullpen, I’ll make it down there. But it was emotional.”

Boston’s lovable “Idiots” in 2004 didn’t just end an 86-year curse. They connected generations. Grandfathers and grandmothers who waited a lifetime to see their team win a World Series could relate with their grandsons and granddaughters who hadn’t experienced quite the same anguish, but certainly got one last bitter taste courtesy of Aaron bleepin’ Boone in the 2003 ALCS, through one emotion: joy. 

Connecting it all was Tim Wakefield, who experienced the lows of utter disappointment one year and the highs of unbridled joy the very next. Tim Wakefield was simultaneously one of us and one of the superheroes who saved the day.

Even still, the amazing things Tim Wakefield helped achieve on the field pale in comparison to the work the Wakefields did off of it. Tim and Stacy’s work through Dana-Farber and The Jimmy Fund changed the course of the lives of countless children. Together, the Wakefields put smiles on all of our faces. There aren’t many things greater that one can do with a lifetime than that…

O’s reintroduce themselves

“Allow me to reintroduce myself, my name is… O’s.”

Baltimore came to town for the first time this season intent on making a statement. They certainly succeeded.

Despite entering with a 5-4 record, the Orioles looked every bit the part of a defending division champion. All three phases of the game — hitting, pitching and defense — jelled seamlessly as the O’s picked apart the Red Sox’s pitching and doused the offensive coals of a team that had just hung a season-high 12 runs not two days prior.

Of course, the Sox didn’t do much to help their own cause. The defensive woes we’ve begrudgingly come to expect from this team reared their ugly head again to the tune of a pair of errors, increasing their season total to nine — third-most in the American league. 

Brayan Bello didn’t look ready to take the mantle as the team’s ace, and one-time rotation candidate Josh Winckowski (who may be forced into the mix after all…) was awful in a four-run,  nine-hit, 65-pitch relief effort. 

Outside of acknowledging Tyler O’Neill, who can’t stop hitting home runs and appears out to prove that his 2021 season wasn’t a fluke, there’s not much to say about that one in a positive light…

(Actually, here’s another… Joely Rodriguez pitched *an entire inning) and did not give up a hit or a run. That's got to count for something, right?)

Given a chance to re-plant their flag atop an organization they used to routinely swat around like a cat playing with a mouse, the Sox’s instead put up a performance more reminiscent of a white flag — or maybe an S.O.S. 

One loss (or one win for the Orioles) isn’t going to make or break or define the season of either club, and Boston has a chance to respond and win the next two. Good clubs lose games and series (but not too many), and bad clubs win games and series, too. It’s just the nature of the 162-headed beast…

But as far as opening acts are concerned, it’s not a performance that looked as worthy of rave reviews as we might have been starting to think…

Pivetta, Story setbacks simply suck

There’s really not much more too it than that, is there?

It’s how Alex Cora described it, after all…

"It sucks, because he put (in the) work and we were pretty confident that he was gonna stay healthy throughout the season and do the things he’s done in the past,” Cora said when asked about Story’s injury.

The two-time All-Star shortstop will undergo surgery to repair a glenoid fracture in his left shoulder, and it’s expected to be season-ending. 

“Obviously some other things happened and it was more serious than we had hoped for,” Story said while fighting back tears. “(It’s) just the frustration of you know battling kind of this injury thing over the last few years. You know, it’s something I’ve hung my hat on in my career is being able to play and post.”

As of the loss of a hitter the team was heavily counting on wasn’t enough, we also learned on Tuesday that the team’s No. 2 starter, Nick Pivetta, was bound for the 15-day injured list with a right elbow flexor strain. 

(About the only bright spot about that news is that it forced the Sox to finally give Brennan Bernardino the roster spot he had already earned…)

Pivetta looked like he had really figured something out and appeared primed for a potential All-Star season — in a contract year, no less. Now, there’s no telling how much this injury will affect his velocity or his ability to snap off his deadly sweeper.

“(I’m) going to look to take these couple weeks off, try to recover and get back at it,” Pivetta said Tuesday. “It’s kind of been there for a bit. Just working through it. Just haven’t been recovering the way that I’d like to. Losing track on getting back to normal.”

Boston fans aren’t the only ones disappointed by such a development, either. Count Baltimore ace Corbin Burnes among those who is dismayed by a growing trend of injuries for pitchers — and he has an idea what’s causing them. 

“Yeah, it’s unfortunate. You never want to see anyone get hurt, especially at the rate guys are going down right now,” Burnes said after Tuesday’s start. “I think we’ve got a problem in our game. MLB’s gonna tell you it’s not pitch clock related. I would argue that injuries, long-term injures are up the last two years and the rate we’re having injuries this year is like nothing we’ve ever seen before. So, there’s a problem, it’s gotta be fixed.” 

Just as Cora said, there’s not much to do now but move forward and look for answers elsewhere…

Gethin Coolbaugh is a columnist for Boston Sports Journal. Follow him @GethinCoolbaugh on X/Twitter. 

Show Comments
Loading...
Loading...
Loading sidebar...
0
Show comments for this article

Comments

Close panelClose