Sometimes it's more than a game...

Wow. An incredible pregame ceremony, followed by a dominating Daisuke/bullpen shutout of the disheveled Detroit Tigers. I almost wish I had spent that chunk of disposable income on Opening Day tickets, instead of on those Clemens-used gauze pads. Though the gauze pads are a better long-term investment, it would have been amazing to have been at Fenway today.

There were so many great moments. The reasonably-priced flyover. Tedy Bruschi, Johnny Bucyk, and Curt Leskanic on the field with Championship Trophies of their own. Pesky and Papi leading the team into the outfield to hoist the flag. Manny and Pesky sharing a moment in the outfield, until G38 butted in. The reanimated corpse of Steven Tyler performing "God Bless America."

There were a few disappointments. Kyle Snyder was not in attendance to receive his ring. Instead of using the money from the Green Monster auctions to reanimate Steven Tyler for a day, they should have chosen, instead, to reanimate Ted Williams. Or perhaps John Henry. Even more disturbingly, CHB was permitted in the ballpark AND on NESN. (Inexcusable.) The announcement that "Boston's most popular musicians" would be performing preceded The Boston Pops, as opposed to Dream Theater. Neil Diamond indicated that he would be at Fenway this summer, to do "Sweet Caroline" live. But, as it turns out, he will be playing an actual concert, instead of that one song at a Sox game. (Remy shared my confusion/dismay upon figuring out the truth.)

Two moments stood among all the others, at least to me. Obviously, Bill Buckner throwing out the first pitch was one of them. A statement that "The Curse", if it ever truly existed, is a thing of the past. The distant past. The current team is a perennial contender. While the failures of past decades will never be forgotten, they may be forgiven, or at least not hurt quite as much.
(Except for Dent, the Bagwell trade, and not re-signing James, which are all still seriously pissing me off.)

My favorite moment from today- Tim Wakefield and Johnny Pesky walking back to the infield after the celebration, arms around each other, Wakefield bending slightly as he spoke to Pesky.
Just. Perfect.