Josh Beckett: The Pitcher Starting Tonight

I logged into Blogger with my mind completely set on writing a post about Beckett before his highly anticipated* first start of the season. I've been reading assorted articles on Josh all day and pouring over stats from every time he's ever thrown a baseball, and... you know what? I've got nothing to write. Well, nothing that hasn't already been written a hundred times. Beckett needs to be the savior. We're all depending on Beckett. How is Josh going to fare this season? What happened to the firebreathing Texan that we so happily cheered for in 2007? I don't know, and I have no new insight either. Short answers, of course, are injuries and location issues, neither of which I'm qualified to speak on. So there you go. I've got nothing on Josh. Still, however, I'm immensely excited about his debut tonight. Josh is the ONLY pitcher I get angry at for pitching well. If he strikes out the side on twelve pitches, I'm angry that it didn't take him nine. If he goes 8 scoreless, I think he should have gone 8 perfect. It's never good enough for me, but man, I sure enjoy it. Despite a few subpar years, I hold him to a pretty high standard. Why? I have no justification. I don't know, perhaps I like getting all riled up every five days, but watching Beckett pitch always brings the devil out of me, and I enjoy it. So while I love Jon Lester, I despise Josh Beckett in the best way possible. Trust me, I'm ridiculous to watch a Beckett game with. The only person more critical of Beckett is probably Josh himself. I know that doesn't come through in the blog, but I like to tidy up my affections for certain players when writing about them. Less confusing that way.

*I don't speak for anyone else, but I am highly anticipating it, and that's what counts.

So, that being said, I need to make sure it's clear that no matter how well or poorly he pitches, and no matter how annoyed I get with him, I still enjoy watching Beckett pitch. When he's good, there's nothing I love more than his fastball. When he's bad, at least I get to vent. I'm hoping for more good this year than bad, but ultimately, that falls on Josh. We'll see. If he fails tonight, he'll be in good company with the rest of the rotation (sans Dice-K), albeit he'll have fallen to a much worse team. Either way.... staying positive this year!

So what can I write about? I can write about how the Bruins ALSO lost to the Rangers... but I'm not much of a hockey fan. I can comment how utterly disappointed I am in Mike Vrabel, whom I once loved dearly, getting arrested for theft at a casino. I hope it is the misunderstanding that he says it is, and for now, I'm inclined to believe him because I want to.

I could comment on Ducky and his comments about Lou Piniella, but really, what could I say? Kevin is retired now, and so is Lou. It's mentionable only for the fact that I'm specifically looking for items to mention. There. I've done it. So really, I've got nothing. Sometimes (err... all the time), I just got to let myself ramble a little. Mission accomplished! Now, on to the game.