Tonight marks the first game for the Red Sox put their $200M roster on the line and try to win the all-powerful Mayor’s Cup! (What, you thought I was going to say Commissioner’s Trophy? Come on guys, it’s only spring training.) For those of you lucky enough to have NESN, you can watch the first three innings with the starters and then go get some dinner. The rest of us get to test out the new broadcasting team of Dave O’Brien, Glenn Geffner and of course, Joe Castiglione.

Without further ado, let me present your 2007 Boston Red Sox (minus half the starters):

1. Julio Lugo, SS
2. Kevin Youkilis, 1B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Jason Varitek, C
5. Mike Lowell, 3B
6. Wily Mo Pena, RF
7. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
8. David Murphy, LF
9. Jacob Ellsbury, CF
P – Curt Schilling

Let the games begin!

Curt talking about Dan Shaugnessy on SoSH:

One of the lines CHB failed to put into the article he wrote a few weeks back was me, on the phone, calling him an asshole. He knows as sure as he’s reading this right now that I think he’s a giant sphincter.

That quote alone is worth $13M.

Note to self:

When going to get a haircut, don’t wear a Youks shirt. I guess to Youks “not too short” would mean barely any hair left.

(See picture below.)

We’re inching ever closer to the best day of the winter: the first game of spring training. (Normally I would say it’s the day pitchers and catchers report, but I dropped the ball on that, so I’ll make up a new best day.) Spring training is one of my favorite times of the year. Every team thinks they have a shot, no matter if your the Red Sox or the Royals. And the beauty is, even if you suck in pre-season you get to say that spring training isn’t a good indicator of the regular season anyway. Basically, everybody thinks they’re a winner. What a waste of time.

You know who else thinks spring training is a waste of time? Actually, let’s make this a multiple choice question:

• Manny
• Manny
• All of the above
• None of the above

If you chose the last one you’re either a moron, or don’t follow baseball (which, by default, makes you a moron anyways!). As usual, Manny will be late to Spring Training this season. This time it’s because his mother just had surgery. I’m guessing the conversation with Theo went something like this:

MANNY: Hey, Theo, I’m gonna be a few days late to camp. Is that OK?

THEO: Sure, no problem. Any reason?

MANNY: Well my grandmother isn’t doing too hot, she’s got to have surgery.

THEO: You mean the grandmother who died a few years ago.

MANNY: Yeah! You remember her!

THEO (sighs): I’ll see you March 1st.

At least there’s still Manny’s babysitter, Big Papi: “Manny is still crazy I’m still babysitting him. Same thing.”

You know what I did today? (I really hope the answer is no, because otherwise you’ve got a webcam going in my backyard, and that’s really creepy.) I played catch. Why? Because it’s officially baseball season. It officially became baseball season when the Pats didn’t make the Superbowl. So that game most of America will be watching tomorrow? Worthless. Remember that in 2001 and 2003 the Superbowl was the conciliation prize for not winning the World Series. And in 2004 it was just gravy.

It’s now official that there will be someone new patrolling the shadows of Pesky’s Pole in a Sox jersey. Trot Nixon in no longer a member of the Boston Red Sox. After 11 seasons, Trot will be wearing number 33 for the Cleveland Indians (Joe Inglett wears 7). It will be sad to see him go. But no worries, we’ve got a new, reliable, right fielder for less money! Wait a minute, we’ve got an even less reliable power hitter for an albatross contract; and sadly it’s now official. I’m not going to call JD Drew our full-time right fielder until I see him play more than 83 games in a single season. I know that Trot’s power has dropped from year, to year to year, but if it’s Trot for $3M or $70M contract for JD Drew? I still would have taken Trot nine and a half times out of ten.

I’m guessing the Indians are still pissed about 1999, because in addition to signing Trot, they also picked up Keith Foulke, who I still think should have been the Series MVP in 2004. I can see these transactions working in one of two ways:

1) These could either be low-risk, high-reward signings. Both could have resurgent years and make the Indians look like geniuses (a la Mike Lowell). What I think is more likely…

2) The Indians are looking backwards while the Sox keep looking forwards. Even though $8M is chump change to the Sox, it’s very evident that they want to get players before the peaks of their careers, and let them go afterwards (this makes the JD Drew signing even more confusing). Assuming that Theo is looking younger, you can’t fault him for trying to make the team better.

For those of you keeping score at home, that means only eight of the 25 members of the 2004 Red Sox remain on the team (Papi, Manny, Schilling, Tek, Wake, Timlin and Youks), including one left only to return (Belli). There’s one way to fix this, make the 2007 Red Sox world champions as well. Remember folks, it’s baseball season now.