It seems as if the 2007 season just ended for the Red Sox, but that's what happens when you make it to the World Series. Tonight, a new chapter starts for the defending champions as NESN will air the team's first official spring training game at 7 against the host Minnesota Twins.
For everyone associated with the team, including NESN play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo, the offseason pretty much went by in the blink of an eye.
"I think we ran into the same thing in 2004," said Orsillo, enjoying his time at the Sox' temporary home in balmy Fort Myers, Fla. "You get right into November there with the parade and everything else and before you know it, it's Thanksgiving and the holidays, and here we are again. I think it's a good problem to have. It's tough to turn the page on last year though, because last year wasn't all that long ago."
NESN adjusted its programming this spring, adding features to help satisfy the insatiable appetite of Sox fans.
"This is my eighth season coming up," said Orsillo. "I could never imagine that Red Sox Nation and the thirst for all things Red Sox could grow year in and year out, and I think it has. As a kid growing up in New England, there was great Sox loyalty at that point, but it has grown immensely and continues to grow. It's amazing that people want more. One of the new things we did this year was kind of a test run on [airing] the first workouts of spring training. It's the first of its kind in the major leagues, which is pretty amazing. When you think that fans would watch virtually two hours worth of drills . . . they did and they want more. I wouldn't be surprised if, moving forward, we did more of that. The thirst is great and growing as we speak."
This spring training has been notably uncontroversial. Other than a few days of Curt Schilling rehab-vs.-surgery news, there has been nothing but feel-good reports.
"I cannot remember another spring training where I've arrived and there have been so few possible jobs available or possible controversies that could take place or a story you were kind of looking for," said Orsillo. "There are two - one is a fairly big deal and one really isn't. One is the Coco Crisp story, which really has been downplayed down here as something that may not even happen. He could very well start the season with us and he may very well start as the center fielder, which we're hearing more from [general manager Theo Epstein and manager Terry Francona].
"The other one is there is one job available in the middle of the Red Sox bullpen, which is not very exciting, but that's the job that's available and there are three or four guys vying for that. There are always surprises, it's never boring, but I don't ever remember a time coming in where there was so little opportunity for guys to gain jobs."
Orsillo said there was no question in his mind that Francona was going to be rewarded with a contract extension. It was just a matter of when.
"I really felt like it would get done before the season started and they wouldn't allow it to be a distraction," Orsillo said. "I know the ownership likes him too much and right back at them, I know how much respect he has for them. It all seems to fit. You can't argue with his record, two championships in four years, but more than that, it's what he does off the field with how he deals with the team in the clubhouse, and how he deals with all of us in the media."
With the start of exhibition games, it means spring is finally on the horizon.
"If you're in New England and you're sitting in the snow, there's nothing better to watch than the palm trees, and what is a beautiful area here, and the thought that baseball at Fenway isn't that far away," Orsillo said.
In for a fight on CBS
Mixed martial arts has found a home on network television. CBS has reached an agreement with ProElite, which produces the sport's events, to broadcast live two-hour specials four times a year. "Mixed martial arts is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country and a wildly popular entertainment vehicle for upscale, young adult audiences," Kelly Kahl, CBS Primetime's senior executive vice president, said in a release . . . ESPN has hired Bob Knight, the winningest coach in Division 1 men's basketball, as a studio analyst for the network's coverage of the NCAA Tournament . . . Since NBC opted not to air the Bruins-Rangers game at Madison Square Garden March 9, NESN will have the coverage beginning at 3 p.m. Because of the switch, the Sox' spring training game against the Dodgers at Vero Beach, Fla., at 1 p.m. will be shown on tape delay at 8 . . . If Tiger Woods is playing, they will watch. Just look at the ratings for last weekend's WGC
