After one of the most active offseasons in club history -- one in which the Sox stunned two continents with a $103 million acquisition of Japanese pitching sensation Daisuke Matsuzaka -- the Sons of Terry Francona open their regular season this afternoon against the nameless, faceless Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. More than 150 Boston and Japanese media have applied for credentials. The Royals haven't seen such a throng since they won the 1985 World Series.
Forty-year-old Curt Schilling gets the ball for Boston today and the 2004 World Series hero said, "I'm ready. We're healthy except for Mike [Timlin, strained oblique]. Now we have to go out and win games."
Schilling is an A-list baseball celebrity, a one-time Sports Illustrated co-Sportsman of the Year, one of Barbara Walters's 10 Most Fascinating People of 2004, likely to run for office one day, and a rare ballplayer who communicates directly with his fans on an exhaustive personal blog. And yet in this spring of 2007 Schilling is not even the most famous pitcher in the Red Sox' stable of thoroughbred throwers.
The brightest star in the Sox galaxy is Matsuzaka, the 26-year-old rookie who has been the subject of more coverage than any major league player in the spring of '07. The San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds is within 22 home runs of breaking the most cherished record in baseball, but Bonds has been overshadowed by Matsuzaka Mania.
