(Almost) Truck Day 2013!

Baseball always seems much closer from this side of the Super Bowl.  Red Sox pitchers and catchers report in six days, with their first workout taking place on February 12, in just over a week,  According to the Boston.com's Extra Bases blog, the Globe's Red Sox beat writers are off to Fort Myers TODAY - there are enough players already in attendance to make the early trip worthwhile.

Tomorrow, of course, it will be time for a tradition unique to Boston: Truck Day, when dozens of fans gather on Yawkey Way to watch the team's equipment depart for spring training in the freezing New England weather.  It's the first harbinger of spring in this part of the country, and a quirky but fun way to celebrate the coming of warm nights spent at Fenway Park.

In the last few years, the Red Sox have realized that fans typically turn out of their own accord, and they've made sure to do some fan-outreach, like the attendance of Wally the Green Monster.  There's no info (that I was able to find, at least) on the Red Sox website or Boston.com about this year's event, and  I'm still back and forth about whether I'll head over there.

Have any of you been to Truck Day before? Are any of you planning to be there tomorrow? Is it worth it? Let me know in the comments, on Facebook, or on Twitter!

Move over, Shaughnessy... There's a new cynic in town.

In a shocking new development, the Boston Globe has a bitter cynic working in the sports section. No, I'm not talking about CHB, but [relatively] new blogger Chris Gasper. He wrote a patronizing post the other day about the "farce" that is Truck Day, and even bashes his own paper (among others) for covering it so heavily.

Gasper is biting the hand that feeds him, though I'm sure the Globe won't mind - anything that stirs up controversy and enhances site traffic is just fine by them. Insulting the fans, however, is another matter entirely. Gasper tries to cover his bases by offering up a few cheap compliments:

"Red Sox fans you're better than this. You are the most astute, educated and critical fans in the game. You cheer the outstanding plays of opposing players. You argue endlessly over a manager's decisions, can debate the importance of .OPS vs. UZR and explain why Jose Iglesias has more upside at shortstop than Derrik Gibson."

Personally, I'm tempering my enthusiasm on Iglesias for now... But he sure looks good, doesn't he?

But then he drops the ball quicker than Julio Lugo in the rain (or the sun), and lets us all know how stupid and irrational we're being. Thanks, Chris, but we know that watching a truck leave Fenway Park isn't the most sensible thing to be doing.

But seriously, how can you look at this photo and not smile?

Then again, for many years, rooting for the Red Sox wasn't the most sensible thing to be doing either, and no one at the Globe asked us to stop reading their coverage of the team. I don't know about you, but for me Truck Day is about more than a truck full of bats, balls, exercise bikes, and buckets of Dubble Bubble... Truck Day means baseball is coming. Yes, I know in my heart that baseball will come whether or not I click through the gallery of the Truck Day photos, just as the folks who turn out to oggle Punxsutawney Phil don't really believe that the rodent is predicting the weather.

Gasper was just trying to stir things up, and he succeeded. For his sake, I hope he wasn't always this cynical, though perhaps he spent his childhood disillusioning his peers about the alleged existence of the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. I've never actually been at Fenway for Truck Day, and don't have any immediate plans to do so... But who does Gasper think he is to judge those who, as he says, "believe the truck isn't just carrying bats and balls it's carrying the hopes and dreams of Red Sox Nation."

He asks us to "Spare him." Next time, Chris, spare me the cynicism and coldhearted analysis... We're in the middle of a New England winter, and things are cold enough.

Truck Day > Superbowl

I'm sure you've all figured this out by now, but I'm not the world's biggest football fan. Sure, I watched the Superbowl, and because I'm required by virtue of my New England birth to hate Peyton Manning, I was happy that the Saints won (and just a little jealous of the party in New Orleans that's sure to carry through Mardi Gras next week).

Approximately 10% of this crowd loves the Saints, 2o% are casual fans, 55% are just looking for a good time, 13% hate Peyton Manning, and 2% are simply confused.

To be honest, my favorite part of the Superbowl is that it marks the end of football season (though the beginning of Brett Favre speculation on SportsCenter). To me, the Superbowl means that it's almost time for Spring Training: indeed, Truck Day is this week, pitchers and catchers report the week after, and from there it's a hop, skip, and a jump to Opening Day [night?] on April 4.

Not just a truck, but a cause for jubilation in baseball-starved New England.

This winter has been even more difficult than most, with the Bruins underachieving, the Celtics battling scores of injuries, and the Patriots bowing out of the playoffs in the first round. If you're anything like me, baseball is arriving just in time to save your sanity... so rejoice! Because baseball is nearly here.