Portland Sox Fan

Whatever it says to the left there. I should get home just in time for the first pitch.

Sure, today is opening day according to ESPN. But for the rest of us, it begins tomorrow.

Got anything special planned? Me; I just plan on being home from work in time to watch it on TV. I’ll get some Saranac; maybe have hot dogs for dinner, and enjoy Pedro blanking the Devil Dogs.

Granted it was vs. the bench players; but a decent outing for Fossum yesterday. Let’s hope that translates well…not to shabby from Burkett, either.

GAME (almost) ON!

Derek Lowe with an excellent outing yesterday; great one to springboard into the regular season with. If the rotation holds, I should be seeing Lowe’s first home start on 4/13.

Hopefully Fossum has a good 4 innings today as well.

I enjoyed this tidbit from the Globe this morning:

The five relievers responsible for sharing the closer’s job have rallied behind a maxim that appears on the back of camouflage-colored T-shirts commissioned by Mike Timlin, an avid hunter. The maxim: ”He who is too wrapped up in himself is overdressed.”

I also enjoyed the fact that Cablevision Yankee fans are screwed again this year; I only wish Comcast took as tough a stance with YES.

Must be the Baseball Preview issue of the Globe; a ton of baseball articles today, but mostly fluff. Interesting bit about broadcast conflicts; being outside of the Boston DMA, I think I should be all set; virtually every game on NESN this year.

In case you’ve never been there, a very interesting place to get insight/opinion on the Sox is the Sons of Sam Horn site. In my opinion; the best thing about it are the Mike F reports (here is yesterdays); composed by a gentleman who spends all of spring training in Florida. Very detailed reports; generally a lot better than what you read in the papers. The guy is an entertaining read; and I get the impression that he knows his stuff.

Another interesting column that I stumbled upon (via a link from another site; I can’t remember which one) is actually a Yankee column. The Pinstriped Bible is a good read, and unlike most Yankee columns, seems to take an objective stance on the team. I would suggest starting at the beginning and readin

So with a couple days before negotiations are done; and after another excellent performance, the focus between now and Opening Day will likely be “Does Pedro get his extension?”. He says he isn’t talking once the season starts; but it appears he has backed off of his stance of “Extend me or bye-bye”. I have also softened my stance on the Pedro situation; as I mentioned in the message boards. Head over there and make your 2003 predictions.

Still wondering about the Castillo move. To be honest; I didn’t even realize Steve Woodward was on the squad until yesterday’s article in the Globe.

And an excellent point brought up in the interview with Theo in today’s

OK, I don’t understand cutting Castillo…guy has been solid in relief, is cheap, and has experience. Got comments? Let me know

Over on the message board, I’ve got a thread started that we’ll keep track of throughout the year…your 2003 predictions. Get ‘em in now; I’m going to lock the thread sometime next week.

Yes, in order to post over there, you have to give an email address. No; I’m not giving out the email address to anybody; I just don’t want total anonymity and zero accountability over there.

If you don’t laugh when you read this, then you are a humorless bastard. Or I’m a sick bastard.

Seems that Framingham Lou is no more. Can’t say that I’m shedding a tear over this breaking news.

Welcome to the initial version of Portlandsoxfan.com. Let’s call it version .5 for now, as all I’ve done is use the default templates for Moveable Type with a little tweaking. I plan on overhauling the design, as well as possibly adding a message board or maybe even a chat room. Comments are always welcome. It is not necessary to put your real name/email address. Thanks for visiting.