Poll: Are you excited for the 2023 Boston Red Sox season?
As spring training begins to churn down in Florida and out in Arizona, this is normally the time of year baseball purists begin to get the itch.
While we look out the window here in eastern and central Maine, we're met with snowbanks and dreary days. But watching a bunch of guys stretch on a baseball diamond in the Sunshine State provides a welcome distraction and thoughts of warmer temps coming our way as we get closer and closer to baseball season.
At least, that's the way it's always been. Though, there seems to be a fair amount of indifference towards the commencement of spring training this year, as Red Sox fans are going into the 2023 season with tepid expectations for the club coming off a last place finish in 2022.
It appears to be an issue for fans and the media alike. As Sean McAdam of the Boston Sports Journal pointed out, only five Boston media outlets - one TV station and four newspapers/websites - were in attendance at the first official day of spring training yesterday, when Alex Cora and Chaim Bloom met with the small crop of media for the first time this year.
You can't really blame people for not getting too excited until the team goes out on the diamond and proves they're worth the attention. Again, it's a last-place team that let its clubhouse leader jet off to the west coast over the winter, while replacing name-value talent with bargain deals.
Most projections have this Sox squad finishing anywhere from 79-83 to 82-80 and in the basement of the AL East.
So, where's your excitement level at? Do you always get fired up, no matter what, at this time on the calendar? Or do the many doubts have your looking for other forms of entertainment come spring?