The Red Sox start the 2009 season not as favorites, or even as the second best team in the AL East-despite friendly press reports to the contrary-and in this economy they can’t afford a losing April. Starters Mike Lowell, Jason Varitek, JD Drew and Big Papi may all be too old to hit. With a surplus of pitching it’s a wonder why Theo Epstein hasn’t traded Clay Bucholtz for 23 year-old hitting phenom and catcher Jerrod Saltalamacchia. The dispassionate GM could be remaking the club in his dispassionate image, at least that’s what some ex-Red Sox free spirits, discarded from the 2004 & 2007 Championship teams would have you believe. Manny is still making Red Sox Nation look bad. Are we uptight and overly-obsessed with baseball? Patriarchal and controlling? Provincial? Obsessed with the Yankees? Well, Manny seems to be having a lot of fun, and the Sox seem to be missing something. Boston is not hitting well this Spring, couldn’t score in Game 7 of last year, and if Manny keeps hitting AND laughing Theo may wonder if the two were meant to go hand and hand together. The free spirits of ‘04 & ‘07 are long gone. It may soon be no laughing matter.

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