The Red Sox were all things to all people when they opened their 110th season with a 9-7 victory against the Yankees at Fenway Park last night.
The Sox trotted out 2004 icon Pedro Martinez for the ceremonial first pitch. With no cornfield handy, Pedro emerged from a makeshift white tent in the left field corner, wearing his old No. 45. He milked the moment, then threw one last pitch to his old catcher, Jason Varitek.
There was more, much more.
Rapper Dr. Dre posed for photos around the cage during batting practice and ex-Sox Curt Schilling and Nomar Garciaparra came over to the dark side, appearing as analysts on ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight.’’ Mike Lowell, who was traded in December (the deal was voided) received the loudest pregame ovation, and 90-year-old Johnny Pesky celebrated his 68th anniversary with the club. A 5-year-old Herb Brooks clone delivered a pregame motivational speech and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler sang “God Bless America’’ in the seventh. LeBron James and his entourage watched from John Henry’s box.
For good measure, Neil Diamond himself (wearing a Sox cap and a “Keep the Dodgers in Brooklyn’’ jacket) appeared in person to sing “Sweet Caroline’’ before the home half of the eighth.
Yeesh. What a circus. Thank goodness Tiger Woods and the Octomom declined their invitations.
Oh, there was baseball, too. The Sox came back from deficits of 5-1 and 7-5, scoring the winning run on a passed ball in the seventh to beat the world champs in front of 37,440 — the 551st consecutive Fenway sellout. The game featured 24 hits and nine pitching changes in a tidy 3:46.
There. After one day of baseball, the Red Sox are in first place and the Yankees are in the cellar with the worst record in the majors (OK, nobody else has played yet — it still sounds good).
“Guys are going to do a lot of good things on this team all year,’’ said Kevin Youkilis (two doubles and a triple).
The Sox did not make an error, which made it a good night for the Run Prevention Brigade.
The first pitch of the 2010 season yielded a routine grounder by Derek Jeter. New Sox shortstop Marco Scutaro handled the chance flawlessly. Nick Johnson was next and he hit a can of corn to Mike Cameron in center. It was as if the baseball gods wanted all the Sox’ new defenders to make a play right out of the gate. Alas, no play for third baseman Adrian Beltre; Mark Teixeira grounded to first to end the inning.
