The way it should be

AMERICAN LEAGUE - EAST

            W   L   PCT   GB
New York    1   0  1.000  --
Boston      0   1   .000   1

The Yankees beat Boston in the season opener at Yankee Stadium, 9 to 2. The game featured good pitching from Randy Johnson, a run balked in by David Wells, a home run by Hideki Matsui, a costly bobble by Johnny Damon, and excellent defensive plays by Matsui (denying the BoSox a two-run home run) and Tino Martinez (in his first inning back in the Stadium in a Yankee uniform).

At least in one arena, all's right with the world.


P.S. My other home town team, the Mets, opens on the road, against Cincinatti, tomorrow afternoon.

I am one of those rare New Yorkers who has no intrinsic preference for either team, having started in my barely-remembered youth with the Tom Tresh-era Yankees, then being seduced by the antics of the "Can't Anyone Here Play This Game" Amazing Mets, and subsequently switching my preference back and forth several times since (not to mention a couple of short periods when baseball just didn't interest me at all).

I'll watch whichever team is playing good entertaining -- and winning -- baseball, although, given the Yankees' record, that means I've ended up watching more of the Bronx Bombers than the Mets in recent years, as the Mets slowly drifted (or precipitously sank) out of contention. I'm hopeful that under Willie Randolph, one of my favorite Yankee players, the Mets will do better this year.