Acing Opening Day

After losing their first eight Opening Days from 1962 to 1969, the Mets finally got their first W on the season's first day in 1970, when they beat the Pirates, 5-3, in 11 innings. From that day forward, they're 31-9 on Opening Day following today's game in Cincinnati, and that .775 winning percentage is baseball's best in that span. Add in those eight losses for a 31-17 mark, and the .646 winning percentage still leads MLB.

Unlike some won-loss records in baseball, this one has some weight to it. Whereas some team-vs.-team records (or pitcher-vs.-team records) are a bit hollow -- because the players on both sides change, rendering the numbers little more than uniform-vs.-uniform -- the Mets' Opening Day mark is an indication of just how strong the front of their rotation has been over the past four decades. If the franchise has come to be known for developing a certain type of player over its nearly 50-year existence, starting pitching is it.

A look at their Opening Day starters shows a few Hall of Famers or potential Hall of Famers (and one who was believed ticketed for Cooperstown before derailing his career with substance abuse): Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, Tom Glavine and Johan Santana among them. Seaver started 11 openers, including 10 straight from 1968-77; Gooden had eight scattered from 1985-94; Glavine took the ball for four of the five from 2003-07, with Pedro Martinez getting the other one; and Santana has had the last two.

Those five hurlers account for 26 of the 48 openers including today, and with this afternoon's win, the Mets' record in those 26 games is 19-8. Also scattered in there are starts by Bobby Ojeda (a win in 1987), David Cone (a win in 1992), Al Leiter (a loss in 1999, wins in 2001 and '02) and Mike Hampton (a loss in 2000). Those arms don't belong to journeymen, at least not at that stage of their careers (particularly in Hampton's case, who was an ace when he arrived via trade but quickly fell to journeyman status when he signed with Colorado). They were all considered solid No. 1 starters, if not traditional aces, and their Opening Day starts led to a 4-2 mark, bringing the team's record in this selection of games to 23-10.

With that kind of pedigree on the arms the Mets have sent to the hill for the first pitch of the season, it's no wonder they've won more than 75 percent of their season openers since 1970 and 64 percent overall.

Friday thoughts on the playoffs

Am I surprised at the Mets' 2-0 series lead? Not really. I am, however, suprised at just about every other outcome in the Division Series so far.

The one series at 1-1 was Tigers-Yankees? Wow.

Oakland owned the Metrodome, then completed the sweep? Woah.

San Diego dropped two at home, proving that St. Louis is their playoff nemesis? Crazy.

Speaking of crazy, what is Bruce Bochy doing not starting his best hitter, Mike Piazza, in Game 2? You carried three catchers all season and gave Piazza regular rest -- two, three days a week, or at least every day game after a night game -- for this specific reason, to have Piazza play everyday in the playoffs. Not starting him is ridiculous.

Should the Cards finish the job, and the Mets take care of things -- hopefully in L.A., hopefully on Saturday -- I don't think the St. Louis pitching will be much of a match for the Mets' hitting. New York is still five wins away from the World Series, but its loss of two starters no longer appears to be such a daunting obstacle to overcome.

Watching Yanks-Tigers right now, and Kenny Rogers is getting himself out of any jams he gets into; Randy Johnson is looking like a 42-year-old pitcher with a bad back. Say what you want about the Mets' signing of Pedro Martinez, but the Yankees' going after Johnson appears to have been the worse deal, and it has nothing to do with the players they gave up. Strictly regarding the money, the Pedro deal is, at worst, just as bad, but it's not any more debilitating than the Yankees' signing of Unit.

A sports lover's dream Saturday tomorrow. Three baseball playoff games, all spaced evenly -- 1 p.m. ET, 4 p.m., 7:30 p.m. -- and a so-so slate of college football games in which all the intriguing matchups will be available nationally. I'll be working, but I'll be watching. The only bad part is that I'll have to come into the office at some point in the afternoon, and that will be an hour of baseball and football that I'll miss.

Vroom me out to the ballgame

So Pedro is back and the Mets are in good shape. What a nice, comforting win last night. So long as the Mets can take two out of three this series -- and continue to win two out of three more often than they lose that ratio -- I'll relax more and more each day. For the past few years now, I've been hoping for someone to knock the Braves from the top of the National League East. ABB was my motto -- Anybody But the Braves. I thought last year might be it; then I really thought this year was it, but I didn't know if the Mets would be the ones to do it.

I think we're getting closer to that.

But how about last night? The largest crowd -- well, regular-season crowd, they say -- to see a game in the 40 years the Braves have been in Atlanta? Damn. What could have brought them out to The Ted?

Oh. NASCAR Night.

Yep, some real baseball fans they have down there in Atlanta. Not that it doesn't surprise me. There have been repeated signs, but unless the team reaches the NLCS, the fans don't pay much attention. The die-hards are there, as they are in every city (how do you think the Royals and Marlins claim even 10,000 per game?), but if Jimmy Carter's seat is empty, you can bet there aren't many filled in the upper deck, either.

Old home week for some Mets

The Mets seem to be on a reunion tour, or a You Can Go Home Again tour. Bon Jovi could sponsor it.

First, it was Carlos Delgado in Toronto, where he went 3-for-11 with two runs, a double and an RBI in the Mets' three-game series at the Rogers Centre.

Now it's on to Boston, where Pedro Martinez will pitch on Wednesday, in an appearance he doesn't want to make.

Then, on Friday, they'll send Orlando Hernandez to the mound at Yankee Stadium, where he's sure to get the warmest ovation for a Met in the Bronx since interleague play began in 1997.

John Rocker just needs to shut up. Who asked him? Why is he even talking about this? Though, it does raise some questions about how professional sports leagues follow through on their fines and other punishments.

And then there's Joe Mikulik, a manager in the South Atlantic League for the Rockies' Asheville (N.C.) affiliate. He, um, got a little upset at a call on Sunday.

Keep it simple, stupid

Today's games should count more than yesterday's, if you ask me. Oh, there are no major-league games today?

My point exactly.

Driving into work this morning, a caller and the host made a point on WFAN about the idiocy known as "This One Counts." (I won't drop this until Major League Baseball does.) No matter how much weight Bud Selig and his minions try to add to the exhibition, the players are never going to treat it like a true game, unless maybe you award the players on each team a cash bonus, paid on the spot, and other incentives -- say, $1,000 handed to them at first base after a single, or $10,000 in crisp hundreds collected while standing on home plate after a home run. Oh, and don't keep secrets like a new Corvette from the players. You'll have more guys trying to be MVPs.

The point made on the radio was that Jim Edmonds, one of the game's most aggressive players, didn't come close to Miguel Tejada in an attempt to break up a double play. Edmonds -- a guy who dives in the outfield at least once every two games, who only takes off a crisp, clean uniform on days when he never left the shade of the dugout -- didn't slide hard into second base. And Edmonds plays for the Cardinals, the NL team most likely to benefit from having home-field advantage in the World Series! No one's ever going to pull a Pete Rose again and run over the catcher in an All-Star Game, for fear of injury to himself and the stigma that would come with ending Jason Varitek's season. Ever.

Managers may run the game a little differently, instituting some signs, attempting steals, starting a hit-and-run, pitching around a player. (The day we see an intentional walk in an All-Star Game -- particularly if it's the only at bat a guy like Miguel Cabrera might get -- will be, on a smaller scale, as horrendous as the Tie of 2002.) But you're never going to get anything more than Torii Hunter leaping to rob Barry Bonds of a home run, because he was there in plenty of time and it wasn't as reckless as crashing into a wall or diving headfirst for a sinking liner in the gap.

There are those who argue that if you're going to have "This One Counts," then you have to have every team represented, but I think it's even more of a reason to abolish that representation rule. If the All-Star Game is for league supremacy and is meant to determine which side gets home-field advantage in the World Series, then each league should have its best players available to help it win. The NL deserved to have Cliff Floyd's relative youth and strong arm over Moises Alou's creaky knees. It deserved to have Marcus Giles available for four or five innings instead of Jeff Kent for one at bat. Keeping the fan voting is more important to me than home-field advantage, and how can you justify the fans' collective whim with making the game matter? Carlos Beltran and Edmonds didn't deserve to start over Miguel Cabrera and Andruw Jones, but the fans wanted to see them.

Clearly, the game doesn't count to guys like Gary Sheffield, who in the past only went to represent the Dodgers if they paid for his family to join him, or to Pedro Martinez. (As a Mets fan, I'm more happy that Pedro rested for the games that really count -- Sunday against the Braves -- than I would have been seeing him throw an inning against Miguel Tejada, Vladimir Guerrero and Mark Teixeira. Which he would've gotten through unscathed, which is more than I can say for John Smoltz.) Besides, I already saw him face Vlad in the lesser idiocy of interleague play.

I still love the All-Star Game. I like seeing all the different uniforms on the same field together. I like watching players from different teams chatting in the dugout. I love seeing Jimmy Rollins pretend to care enough to ask Luis Castillo where the Marlins start the second half of the season ("Are you at home?") only to have Castillo shake his head, smile, and point to the "Phillies" on Rollins' chest. "Oh, you're at our place?!" Rollins realized. But you're never going to get the players to play harder than they do now, and to use "This Time It Counts" as a failsafe to ensure there's never another tie is as ridiculous as the car salesman's suit Selig wore during his ESPN interview during the home run derby. Just tell the managers they have to save some pitchers in case the game is tied, and if one team runs out of hurlers while the score is still even, then that league loses the game. They won't run out then.

If David Stern told NBA players that the winning side of the league's midseason exhibition got home-court advantage in the finals, they still wouldn't play defense -- they'd just try to win 150-140. If the NHL ... oh, who cares? It's just that I don't see a difference in how the game is played. There's a miniscule difference in how it's managed, but nobody goes to a baseball game to see the managers' strategies played out. They want to see pitchers pitch and hitters hit.

That's what counts.

Vote for Pedro

Is there no baseball etiquette anymore? What happened to the days when no one would mention a no-hitter in progress? Fans would wink and nod, but say no more. Announcers would work around it with phrases like, "the Mets have all the hits in the game" or some other indication that there were zeros in significant places on the scoreboard. In the dugout, the pitcher would be seated all by himself at one end of the bench.

Tim McCarver thinks he's above the law, above the baseball gods. He'll mention it after the pitcher's gone through the opposing lineup once. Ralph Kiner, though, is just a nice old man who might not know any better. I can't be as mad at Ralph. But I'm surely annoyed, because tonight, in about the sixth inning, when the Mets did indeed have all the hits in the game, he mentioned Pedro's no-hitter. And, of course, in the seventh a Houston homer ended the bid.

I did my part. I didn't move from my seat on the couch (though that's never worked before. I remember one David Cone bid where I laid in the same position for about an hour and a half). I didn't switch away from the game during the commercials. I continued exploring the same website. So it's not my fault.

But the game was plenty exciting after that. Pedro was dealing, Roy Oswalt was reeling and Cliff Floyd was feeling ... hurt. Painfully so.

People talk about Gary Sheffield's wonderful "restraint" when he went after the fan in Boston, but true restraint was shown by Floyd tonight.

The history: Floyd drilled a grand slam off Oswalt's slow curve last season and had an RBI double earlier tonight.

The situation: A passed ball had just moved Carlos Beltran to second with two outs in a 2-1 game and manager Phil Garner came out to talk with Oswalt and catcher Brad Ausmus. The next pitch drilled Floyd in the elbow.

The reaction: Floyd spun around as he was trying to get out of the way of the pitch, got hit, dropped his bat and whirled to face Oswalt. He took one lunging step and then stopped. Restraint. He pointed and jawed at Oswalt as the benches emptied. Oswalt walked towards Floyd as Ausmus and the umpire got in between him. Marlon Anderson and Willie Randolph made sure Floyd didn't get kicked out of the game and suspended.

But he walked down to first base.

Restraint.

Sheffield hit the fan. He showed some restraint by not going into the stands, but Floyd showed true restraint.

Oh, and it's 2-0 Milwaukee in the seventh. Ha.

The Mets are better off

The Mets couldn't pull off the free agent trifecta.

In the end, I think the Mets are better off without Carlos Delgado. He's certainly a player you want on your team, and I would have taken him for four years at around $45 million, but to look at what the Marlins signed him for, I'm glad he went south. It would have been nice to keep him out of the division, but there's only so much you can do.

First of all, the guy's going to be 33 when the season starts. Carlos Beltran is five years younger and Pedro Martinez is a pitcher. It's different giving four years to a 33-year-old pitcher than to a 33-year-old slugger.

Second, you're taking him out of SkyDome as well as the American League. The pitching's going to be tougher and in addition to adjusting to a new league and a new city, he's going to be hitting in a less forgiving ballpark. Shea probably would have been better for him than Dolphins Stadium, but neither can promise him 40, 45 home runs the way Oriole Park would have.

Finally, the Mets need defense. With Mike Piazza behind the plate, Cliff Floyd in left field and Kaz Matsui learning second base (not to mention showing none of the defensive prowess last year he was alleged to have had in Japan), the Mets need a glovemaster at first base. I've been a proponent of this since November. I like the idea of someone like John Olerud scooping up whatever the young infield throws at him. That can only help Matsui, Jose Reyes and David Wright improve and gain confidence. I'd be happy to see Olerud come back to Shea, riding the 7 train again from Manhattan on gamedays. But it sounds like the Mets are on the verge of sending a Class A minor-leaguer and some cash to Boston for Doug Mientkiewicz and his baseball. ("Have you seen my baseball? Have you seen my baseball?") That would be a fine deal, too. Travis Lee is the worst option of the three, but he'd fill the void. Sorry, Jason Phillips, but you're strictly the backup catcher now. Maybe if you had hit .300 and knocked 15 or 20 balls out of the park you'd have a shot at a platoon or something.

What I don't understand about ESPN's coverage of Delgado's signing is the graphic that asked if Florida was now the NL's best team. I don't see how that's even a question because you can't even pinpoint the top team in the NL East, and even if you could, do any of them match up with the Cardinals? Maybe Florida has the edge in that fantasy category -- on paper -- but the lineup suffers a severe drop after the top five (Juan Pierre, Luis Castillo, Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Delgado, Mike Lowell). The rotation has nothing but question marks after A.J. Burnett. Can Dontrelle Willis pitch like he did in 2003 more than he did in 2004? Can Josh Beckett stay healthy? Can Al Leiter get through the fifth inning in less than 100 pitches? Can their rotation match up with the Mets'? Ismael Valdez vs. Victor Zambrano? Will Guillermo Mota have any trouble adjusting to the closer's role? Will they suffer a dropoff with him out of the setup role?

I think that until the Marlins get into camp, and perhaps not until they get through a month of the season, they've got too many things to figure out before you can think of them as the best team in the NL. The same goes for the Mets, and that's only whether or not you can consider them a playoff contender. Well, I think you can consider them a contender; they should be in it late into the season. But without a better bullpen, they'll end up fading in September, if not sooner.

World Series Game 3: Why not?

Red Sox 4, Cardinals 1

First and foremost, I just have to thank God for the opportunity to write this blog.

Why not them? I have to say, having not been a part of all the Red Sox fans' heartaches over the years, I also don't suffer from the pessimism that's come to define them, to an extent. Boston has a 3-0 lead right now, and while some may allow themselves to believe what they don't want to say out loud, there are just as many who are noting that just 10 days ago, it was the Red Sox down 0-3 -- to the Yankees, no less -- and they're not allowing themselves to think about what could be a reality in 24 hours. But ever since the Red Sox took that 6-0 lead against the Yankees, I've started to let myself think about it. I've started to allow myself to believe it could happen -- it will happen -- and, as a result, my outlook of the World Series has been that it's going to happen. I can't explain it, but I've just felt since Friday that this is going to become a reality.

Of course, I'm not going to actually type out the words just yet, but I'm confident that, even after a possible Cardinals win or two, it will indeed come to pass.

So Pedro Martinez still has it, and now he's the one people are calling Daddy. I'm a little tired of the "what might be Pedro's last start as a Red Sox" talk. Leave that for the postseason. Fox played it up with Roger Clemens -- his last start ever! -- in last year's postseason, and look what happened there. A lot of the talk on New York's sports radio today was about the Mets interviewing Willie Randolph for their managerial opening yesterday and what the Yankees will do in the offseason to improve, from signing everyone from Carl Pavano to Carlos Beltran to Eric Milton to Pedro Martinez, to trading Kevin Brown and Jason Giambi and getting Troy Percival to set up Mariano Rivera. I just don't see how Pedro would come to the Bronx. First of all, George Steinbrenner doesn't want him. For one thing, the Yankees have done very well against Boston when Martinez pitches, so it's not like he's killing the Yanks every time out, something that might prompt George to go get the guy. Second, I just don't see him as a pitcher George covets, and we all know George gets the players he wants (Gary Sheffield over Vladimir Guerrero, Kenny Lofton over, well, anyone). Finally, a left hander is more important for New York, so Milton or Randy Johnson will be the target.

But that's hot-stove league talk. There's still at least one more game left in this baseball season.

Postseason thoughts, Day 5

Saturday's games:
Astros 8, Braves 5
Yankees 6, Twins 5, 11 innings
Dodgers 4, Cardinals 0

Yesterday's games:
Braves 6, Astros 5
Cardinals 6, Dodgers 2

Yankees win series, 3-1
There wasn't much doubt how this one would turn out, especially after the Twins blew Game 2. Even when the Yankees aren't as good as they're perceived to be, or they've been in past seasons, they somehow seem to get the job done. Now they head into the Red Sox Rematch -- er, ALCS -- with the added drama of "Do It For Mo," Mariano Rivera, who'll be coming back from Panama, where his wife's cousin and the cousin's son died when they were electrocuted while cleaning Rivera's pool. There's always something with the Yankees. The Red Sox have a better chance of pulling it off this year -- it could be their best chance to win the Series since 1986 -- but they've got one particular stat to knock off first: The Yankees have never lost in the ALCS. They're 10-0, including 6-0 since 1996. New York's only postseason losses since returning there in 1995 were in the Division Series (to the Mariners in '95, the Indians in '97 and the Angels in '02) or the World Series (the Diamondbacks in '01 and the Marlins last year). Unless the Yankees beat Curt Schilling once, Pedro Martinez twice or a combination of that, along with taking out Tim Wakefield, this one's going seven games. Schilling could very well win three games this series, and if he does, that'll do it, because the third start, naturally, would be Game 7. And if he doesn't start it, he'll be available out of the bullpen, that's for sure. But as I said in my postseason preview, I can't go against the Yankees here until it happens. I'm rooting for it with my heart, but I'm thinking that it'll be Yanks in seven. We'll see.

Cardinals win series, 3-1
Four games: pegged it. At least Lima Time is back in effect, and it helped the Dodgers end their eight-game postseason losing streak. The Dodgers' pitching wasn't considered all that spectacular by many (a view I held too), so the St. Louis lineup will have to somehow put up the same output against Houston or Atlanta if it wants to move on to the World Series for the first time since 1987. Those teams can hit, and the Cardinals may benefit from the potential of playing four of the seven games at home, but they'll have to keep either the Astros or the Braves off the board at some point to notch a win or two. Depsite the 4-0 Dodgers win in Game 3, the Cardinals still averaged 5.5 runs per game in the series, allowing 3 per game to L.A., which only scored more than three runs in its shutout victory, when, it turned out, one would have been enough. The point is, there will probably be one or two games against either the Astros or Braves in which eight runs is not enough to win.

Astros-Braves series tied, 2-2
I said the Astros would sweep, and instead, it's the only series that comes down to a decisive Game 5. Clearly, I never thought it would be coming back to Atlanta, and my sweep pick was more that I thought the Braves were the most sweep-able team of the eight. Not so much. What Houston has going for it is Roy Oswalt. He's Ace 1A on this team, and he can clearly lead the Astros to their first postseason series victory in the team's 42-year history. But he'll have to go seven or eight innings to do it, which means Houston will need a 3- or 4-run lead to keep him from getting pinch-hit for in the sixth or seventh. So more than just the way he pitches will determine how far he goes in this game. Phil Garner's getting a little heat for the way he's managed this series, and he's a bit lucky to have Oswalt going here because he couldn't use an ill Clemens to pitch the wild-card clincher on the last day of the season, so his division series rotation was set for him. The Astros should've wrapped this one up at home yesterday, and in going with Clemens on three days' rest, why lift him after five? (Ron Gardenhire's getting the same heat for lifting Johan Santana after only five innings, and he deserves it more. Why go with your ace on three days' rest in Game 4? Well, when you're down 2-1 facing elimination, it's logical. But you have to get at least six, if not seven from him.) Anyway, in Game 2, Oswalt went 6 1/3, allowing a run on eight hits and a walk, striking out four. Brad Lidge was asked to go 2 2/3 for the save, and he didn't get it, and Atlanta won on Rafael Furcal's game-winning DWI -- er, game-winning RBI -- a two-run home run in the 11th. Back in May, Houston took two out of three in Atlanta, losing the middle game (started by Oswalt) 5-4 in the 10th on an Andruw Jones home run. Essentially, that's what the Astros would be doing tonight, taking a three-game series in Atlanta after losing the second game. My pick for tonight: 7-2 Astros.

Postseason thoughts, Day 2

Yesterday's games:
Astros 9, Braves 3
Yankees 7, Twins 6, 12 innings
Red Sox 8, Angels 3

Astros lead series 1-0
Early in the season, when Roger Clemens was something like 9-0, I didn't want to think he was still that dominant. I figured a lot of it had to do with changing leagues and facing lineups who had never seen him and his impressive splitter. As the Astros faded, he didn't get the same press, and I look up his numbers in September, and he's 18-4. OK, that's good. He may have struggled yesterday, but he got out of those jams. He may be a bit of an ass, but he's from Texas. A lot of people are. At least he's a little more likable, and more subdued, than Barry Bonds. I can enjoy watching Clemens set milestones. But the Braves are in trouble. They've never drawn well, so they gave fans who purchased tickets to yesterday's game free tickets to today's game, just to fill seats. Yeah, great fans they have in Atlanta. But Carlos Beltran showed why he'll be the most coveted free agent this winter. Since the all-star break, when the Astros were just 44-44 and struggling, he hit only .257, with 17 home runs and 41 RBI. But he improved his strikeout-to-walk ratio ever so slightly (51 Ks to 45 walks pre-break, 50-47 afterwards) and upped his on-base percentage 5 points to .370. The biggest difference, however, was his aggressiveness on the bases: 27 post-break steals to 15 before the midsummer classic. And all three of his caught stealings came in the first half. But it's Clemens I keep coming back to, and if Roy Oswalt mimics Rocket's output, hometown boy Brandon Backe will have a chance for another big -- and historic -- win in Game 3 in Houston.

Twins-Yankees series tied 1-1
As much as the Yankees and their fans would have talked calmly and acted cooly if they had gone down 0-2 -- "We've just got to take it one game at a time"; "We've been here before"; etc. -- this team would have been in trouble going to Minnesota in such a hole. Sure, it was a big win for the Twins too, which is why Ron Gardenhire had his closer out there to finish off the game in his third inning of work. It's just that I don't get why he was out there in the 10th to begin with. Gardenhire said he left Nathan in for his third inning after the Twins had taken a 6-5 lead on Torii Hunter's home run off Tanyon Sturtze because he "didn't like our options" left in the bullpen. When you're on the road, you know you're going to have to protect a lead with the home team getting one last at-bat, so why was Nathan in there in a tie game to begin with? When the Yankees rallied, he had to bring someone in after Nathan, so why couldn't J.C. Romero have started the 10th? If he got into trouble, then Gardenhire could've brought Nathan in to get out of a jam. The Yankees were lucky to come away with this one. Mariano Rivera faltered again, and Sturtze, who was one of the relievers the team was talking up as having finished the season strong, would have been the losing pitcher. Now the question is: How will Kevin Brown pitch? He's obviously not Joe Torre's first choice, or the decision would have been announced earlier than yesterday. This may seem like an obvious expectation, but my feeling is Brown will either get shelled and not make it through the third, or he'll be brilliant and scatter four hits over seven.

Red Sox lead series 2-0
It's over. Boston isn't the Oakland A's, the Red Sox are not going to blow a 2-0 lead. There's a very slim chance this series will even get back to California. It might not make it to Saturday. Pedro sure sounds like a different pitcher now, far from the "the Yankees are my daddy" comments two weeks ago. "I was the No. 1 today, and that's all that matters," said Martinez, 0-4 with a 7.72 ERA to finish the season. "I don't care what the experts have to say, they were talking trash. Every time they give me the ball, I'm special." The Red Sox may have celebrated their postseason-clinching victory in Tampa Bay (while the Yankees like to talk about how they don't make a big deal out of postseason appearances because that's expected and their goal is to win the World Series), but Boston is playing like a calm, confident, focused team determined to be one of the last two playing this season. Bronson Arroyo might not scare many as the opposing pitcher in an elimination game, but are Angels fans really confident with Kelvim Escobar as their savior? In Boston, which might be the biggest home-field advantage this side of the Metrodome? I'm not so sure about that one.