Ben McDonald has the ultimate take on pitchers' injuries
Sure, Tuesday afternoon, Fenway Park was filled with the usual anger when watching the kind of baseball game that comes with the home team making errors, giving up runs and throwing a wet blanket on the early-season optimism the previous 10 games had allowed for.
That the big picture. Zero in on the eyes, the anger and the emotion of particular participants and you will find the lasting takeaway.
This picture was painted by the power of all that goes with being part of baseball. A first pitch. An injury. An error. They made up the images that will forever define this day.
THE FIRST PITCH
It seemed like a lot, morphing together a reunion with the 2004 world championship team while also honoring the memory of Tim Wakefield and Larry Lucchino. Add in the usual pomp and circumstance of a home opener, and it initially felt like maybe it might all be too much for one pregame window.
What it did was allow for a memorable moment to become something so much more.
First came the lengthy moment of silence for Lucchino and then Wakefield, with respectful cheers being thrown into the solemness. And then came the 2004 club, with a couple of notable additions - Tim and Stacy Wakefield's kids, Brianna and Trevor.
It was Brianna who would do the honor of throwing out the first pitch to Tim's great friend and former teammate Jason Varitek. And helping complete the scene was the semi-circle of her father's 2004 teammates standing right behind, fighting tears and offering cheers.
As an emotional Trot Nixon would later say, it was if the Wakefield children were standing with their 40 uncles.
"I don't think Brianna would've given anybody else a choice,” Varitek said. "She made sure last night. She said, ‘You are catching, right?’ I said, ‘I'm in the bullpen, but I'll make it down there.’ It was emotional. It was really emotional, but she held herself like a champ, and I'm proud of the young lady that she is."
"Today was about Tim and Stacy and Brianna and Trevor and rightfully so,” Nixon said. “And I remember hearing a quote, 'If you're not impacting somebody's life and putting a smile on their face, you're simply wasting your time.' And I think Tim did an unbelievable job of doing that when he was here.”
THE INJURY
The day had already gotten off to a somewhat awkward start thanks to news about an hour before first pitch that Trevor Story was going to need season-ending shoulder surgery.
The player who had played in just 94 games his first season in Boston due to various injuries, and then was limited to 43 games last year after undergoing a procedure on his throwing elbow was now going to be limited to eight games in 2024.
The frustration and helplessness of a player who had seemingly positioned himself to be the player he had been before coming to Boston bubbled up when meeting the media following the Red Sox' loss.
It was the kind of reaction that offers a reminder regarding the power of being part of a team in this game, no matter what the paycheck or level of adulation.
"A lot of emotions. Frustrated. Don’t really understand it," Story said. "I know that it’s a time for me to lean into my faith. I’m where I’m supposed to be. I think God’s plan, sometimes, we don’t like it, or at the moment it doesn’t seem right at all. But I will continue to have that faith and that’s what is going to get me through. The moment is tough and it’s hard to make sense of it."
He added, "I knew it was bad at the moment, as soon as I heard it come out. Just the pain I felt, I had never felt anything like that. You always try and be optimistic and just hope that it went out and would come back in. Just try and make the best of the situation. But obviously some other things happened and it was more serious than I hoped for. It’s hard to imagine.
"Missing last season, you feel that. You miss your teammates. You miss playing the game. ... You just know what it takes."
THE ERROR
Jarren Duran has had a pretty good season, to date. And Tuesday was just one game. And the error he made in the fourth inning that kept the Orioles' inning alive and led to a lead the Baltimore wouldn't relinquish was just one error.
But, for Duran, that reality was hard to grasp after this one.
The outfielder, who been very open about his battle with mental health, was clearly fighting the feelings that come with such a miscue in the midst of the pomp and circumstance of a home opener.
"I just (expletive) suck, man. (Expletive), it’s my (expletive) fault," he said. "If I make that play, we get out of the inning and then none of those other fucking things happen. I just (expletive) suck.
"It’s just baseball, you know? It happens. But it honestly just feels like after that error, they got a couple hits, got a couple runs, and then we never got back into rhythm. So, it's on me."
It is just baseball. But sometimes it all feels like so much more. For better or worse, this game makes you care. That was what we were reminded of on this sunny early-April day.