Hell—OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and good morning, my fellow Boston baseball fans! Isn’t it such a beautiful day? The sun is shining and the birds are singing. It’s a lovely Friday here in the hub of the universe; today would be a great day even without the headline news.
That news, of course, is that the Red Sox begin their 2026 season today! I hate to bury the lede here, but happy Opening Day everyone!!!!!! It’s the start of a new season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, the painfully long Spring Training
ramp-up session is now complete. After spending months at Fenway South in Fort Myers, you would’ve thought that the entire team had relocated there.
I’m sure you’re already well aware of all of this by now, anyways….
What? Could it be that some of you are not acquainted with the story of this season’s delay?
Well, put up an ice block and lend an ear (or, eye, I suppose).
Just to recap for the casuals who may not have been keeping up with the Sox all winter/spring/half of summer:
A bizarre scheduling hullabaloo in the offseason led to each team playing a 123-game preseason schedule before kicking off on a sprint-style regular season. I understand that the Strait of Hormuz crisis taking off right as pitchers and catchers had reported threw a monkey wrench into everything the league had in place for the 2026 season, but you’ve gotta do what you gotta do. Sometimes, the geopolitical powers that be will go ahead and deal baseball commissioners a bad hand. In turn, Rob Manfred was called upon to make some tough decisions. Thus: July 17 was declared as Opening Day across Major League Baseball. Say what you want about Manfred, but he truly had no choice in the matter. I commend him for even getting a season going in the first place.
The Red Sox had played sub-.500 ball throughout Spring Training (a bit of a misnomer at this point, but I don’t wanna split hairs now that we’re all in a good mood on this blessed day). That never stopped us from dreaming though, right? Sure, there will be questions about the offense leading into the season. The nasty injuries that Garrett Crochet and Roman Anthony suffered early on in the spring will certainly not help matters. Brayan Bello struggled in his warm-up appearances; I wonder how he’ll fare now that the games actually count. Can Trevor Story pick up where he left off after a dazzling effort in 2025? Time will tell.
One thing I know for certain is that the American League is going to be mighty competitive this year. We all know what the Yankees can do, but the Blue Jays—fresh off of winning the pennant—will be looking to avenge their World Series heartbreak way back before the whole Strait of Hormuz thing. The Detroit Tigers, too! They’re a good team! My dark horse pick is the Minnesota Twins and the Seattle Mariners. They’re tied, actually, as things stand. My feeling is that the Sox are gonna have to pick up, oh I dunno, a full game on both of them by the time this short regular season is over. I’m sure Houston and Baltimore will be right on our heels as well.
Luckily for us, our team will start the year off with a massive 10-game home stand. Nothing like a little home cookin’ to get yourself off on the right foot! The Red Sox’s home field advantage should be excellent in 2026. Who knows how they’ll perform on the road, but I’m sure they’ll make Fenway a fortress in no time. Maybe not as much of a fortress as the fortress they’ve got surrounded around the ol’ S of H right now, but that’s besides the point.
The one thing that I do think is strange for this short season is how quickly the trade deadline follows Opening Day. It’s like, what, two weeks after we play ball for the first time? Let us get our feet wet, jeez louise!
But again, that’s champagne problems. All that matters is that we get to watch real live baseball in Boston that actually counts for something after months and months of meaningless slop. Let me know in the comments below how YOU’RE celebrating the start of the 2026 Red Sox season today. Here’s to us having a season to remember forever!
