I'll begin with the Red Sox' strength this season. I know most of you are probably thinking to yourselves "Don't the Red Sox have many strengths this season and every season?" Of course, they do, but this year it's starting pitching.
The Red Sox return the best one-two starting pitching combination this side of Diamondback country. (The Diamondbacks have Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, in case you were in a box when they won the World Series in 2001.) Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe combined for 41 wins and only 12 losses last season, with ERAs of 2.26 and 2.58 respectively.
Since coming to the Sox in 1998-courtesy of Amherst alum and former Red Sox General Manager, Dan Duquette'80-Martinez has compiled 87 wins and only 24 losses. Although it may sound like I'm trying to campaign for the Sox to re-sign Pedro as soon as possible, I'm just trying to make a point that Boston has the best pitcher in the American League.
After Martinez and Lowe, the Sox will look to Tim Wakefield and Casey Fossum to carry the number three and four positions in the rotation. Fossum is under a lot of pressure this season after the Red Sox declined a trade offer that would have sent Fossum to Montreal for all-star Bartolo Colon. After a reasonable rookie campaign, Fossum should only improve this year.
Offensively, the Sox will once again rely on the talented bats of perennial all-stars Nomar Garciaparra and Manny Ramirez as well as leadoff man, Johnny Damon. Nomar had a successful 2002 season despite not being 100 percent healthy after he missed almost all of 2001 due to injury. Trot Nixon is coming off back-to-back successful seasons and is finally becoming the player the Red Sox have pictured for almost 10 years.
Offseason acquisitions David Ortiz and Jeremy Giambi can only improve over Tony Clark at first base, but it remains to be seen whether either can replace Brian Daubach. Once again the Sox will look to Jason Varitek behind the plate. Varitek is still struggling to adjust to major league pitching even though this is now his fifth season in the Big Leagues.
Look for the Red Sox to win 100 games this season. Look for Pedro win the Cy Young Award and Manny to win the MVP. Look for the Red Sox in the World Series for the first time since 1986. I'm not predicting them to win the World Series just yet-I wouldn't want to go overboard. I hope after all these things happen, I don't wake up.
The NHL's struggles
Newsflash: the National Hockey League is struggling. Struggling financially, struggling with image and struggling with popularity. With two teams going bankrupt recently and others raising ticket prices to ridiculous levels, the league is in turmoil.
My theory for why hockey is not generating as much interest as basketball, baseball or football is relatively simple. Until recently, Americans had dominated the other three major sports. Every superstar basketball player- Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird-was American. Every superstar baseball player-Barry Bonds, Ted Williams, Ken Griffey, Jr., and all of the old Yankees-was American. Every superstar football player-Joe Montana, Walter Payton, Barry Sanders-was American.
Most of the NHL's superstars, however, have historically been foreigners-Wayne Gretzky, Sergei Federov, Patrick Roy. You get the picture. Only recently have foreign players in basketball and baseball been at the same level as the Americans. Guys like Dirk Nowitzki and Yao Ming in basketball and the Dominican players in baseball are still a minority in their respective sports. Foreign players come to America to play at the highest level of competition. However, in the NHL, foreigners, especially Canadians and Eastern Europeans, are the majority. They do not play in the United States to play against the best Americans, they come to the United States because the NHL has enough money to attract the best talent from around the world.
In 1981, Bobby Carpenter (who just happened to go to my High School, St. John's Prep) was the highest-drafted American in NHL history, the number three overall pick. In 1981, I would assume with reasonable confidence, that almost every player in the NBA, NFL and MLB drafts was American-born.
Americans just do not identify as well with the foreign-born hockey players. Peter Forsberg, Markus Naslund, Milan Hejduk, Alexei Kovalev and the likes are the equivalent of Barry Bonds, Shaquille O'Neal and Brett Favre, yet they are not the same caliber of household names. Non-hockey fans do not know who Milan Hejduk is, yet everyone knows Brett Favre.
Another reason hockey has been falling by the wayside is America's obsession with large numbers. We want to see Kobe Bryant score 40 points in one game, and Barry Bonds hit 70 home runs in a season, but who cares if Mario Lemiuex scores 40 goals this season. That's only one every other game, and besides, the record is more than twice that number. If the NHL wants to increase its popularity, it needs to market its players to the American audience and increase scoring. Until then, hockey will remain stuck below baseball, basketball, football, auto racing and even golf (think-Tiger Woods is the most popular athlete in America) and just above soccer, tennis and bowling.