"I still woke up and looked in the mirror and had no hair," Francona said. "Some things don't change."
Indeed, some things remain the same, like Tim Wakefield's recent mastery over Yankees other than Aaron Boone, who struck the fateful blow off the Sox knuckleballer in the 11th inning of Game 7 six months ago. Wakefield, who otherwise baffled the Yankees in the ALCS, returned to stymie the Steinbrenner Nine for seven innings and lead the Sox to a 6-2 victory before 35,163 at Fenway Park in the first of 19 regular-season games between the super-rivals.
Even Wakefield was not as jolted by the electricity of the event as most spectators.
"Baseball's my life, but it's not the end of my life," he said of renewing the rivalry after last year's crushing ending. "I take a lot of pride in my job and I was disappointed about what happened last year, but it's time to move on."
Other than Wakefield and some other Sox players, Francona was all but alone in distancing himself from the hoopla surrounding the game and Alex Rodriguez's Boston debut with the Evil Empire. After all, Francona didn't sleep through the frosty night outside the park for a shot at one of the 500 tickets (scattered singles and obstructed views) that went on sale before the game. He didn't have to navigate around glitterati such as former Sox pitcher Bill "Spaceman" Lee, who decided to plop down on the grass along the first base line before the game near a sprawl of television crews and reporters. He wasn't as drawn to the history of the rivalry as the Sox' public relations crew, which calculated that 182 days 19 hours 51 minutes had elapsed between Boone's homer and Wakefield's first pitch last night. Heck, Francona figured the Sox were playing just another game -- and he still had no hair.
He said he felt no different in the dugout than he did in the previous eight games against the Orioles and Blue Jays.
"I knew the game was televised so I was trying to keep my [tobacco] chewing to a limit so I don't get a call from my children," he said. "But, no, I just want to win every game real bad."
