With Monday's scheduled opening day washed out by the rain, manager Terry Francona now looks at Tuesday's makeup opening day with the always-present mixture of excitement and anxiety.
While the anxiety might be surprising given the fact that this is Francona's sixth opening day as the skipper and he's now led the franchise to more playoff appearances than any other manager in the long history of the team, it's still there. Perhaps it's the reason why he has been such a good fit on the Sox's bench, as his combination of sound baseball strategy and personnel management has given the Sox unprecedented stability within their clubhouse. Francona's career winning percentage of .580 is second-best among Red Sox managers, but the milestones are nothing more than numbers to a man who is already locked into pitching matchups and gaining any potential edge over his opponents.
The Sox skipper is in fourth place in team history all-time with 470 regular-season wins, sitting behind Hall of Famer Joe Cronin, Pinky Higgins and Billy Carrigan.
"It's always the same," said Francona. "I bet you there's 29 other managers sitting where I'm at and feeling the same way. (I'm) confident but yet feeling anxiety. We have reason to feel optimistic about the big picture."
There will be a new set of challenges this season with longtime pitcher Curt Schilling gone from the scene, but leaving the daily Manny Ramirez soap opera of last year behind him is sure to make any manager's job that much easier. Now it's all about the nuts and bolts of baseball.
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