Truck Day

For as long as I can remember, that day in February when the Red Sox equipment truck leaves Fenway Park to begin the 1,500 mile, 3-day journey down to Florida has been a special day. To me it always marks the beginning of a new Sox season, as well as a new baseball season, and it means that spring is right around the corner, a lot of things to get excited about.

“Truck Day” has always been a big deal to me, and now it’s just a big deal. Before, you always new that the truck would be leaving Fenway a few days before pitchers and catchers were scheduled to report, and if you somehow managed to forget, there was always a note in the local paper or the local news broadcast to remind you that the truck was leaving.

Now “Truck Day” is all the rage. There is an official press release noting the time and point of departure. The truck is accompanied by a procession of Red Sox ambassadors including “Wally The Green Monster” as it makes it’s way down Van Ness Street. It even has it’s own name now, “Truck Day”; before it was just the day the Red Sox equipment truck left Fenway Park for Florida.

I admit I’m slightly annoyed. Back when the Nation was more like a state, the day the Sox equipment truck headed down to Florida came and went with very little fanfare and only the “die hards” even knew it had occurred. Now in the “New Nation”, where membership costs $15 annually, it has become a big production and is being celebrated by people who have no idea of it’s history. I feel like something has been taken away from me.

Don’t get me wrong, for the most part, I’m very happy with what John Henry, Tom Werner, Larry Luchino, Dr. Charles Steinberg, and everyone else has done with the team and the ballpark. Sure I’d like to see this team win a World Championship without spending the kind of money that was spent on the Big Dig mishap, I’d like to be able to get into Fenway Park a few times a year to catch a game without having to give up a limb, or my first born, and I’d like to be able to know that, when I see someone wearing a Red Sox hat, they can tell me that Jerry Remy was an All-Star second baseman for the Sox (they don’t even have to know that he spent his first 3 seasons with the Angels) before he became the legendary RemDawg; but I’ve come to the realization that this is the way it’s going to be, and I can live with it. I’d much rather take this, then be a Kansas City Royals fan.

So tomorrow is “Truck Day”; it is no longer the day the equipment truck left the city, or whatever similar term you want to use to describe it. It has an official name and it is now officially celebrated in Red Sox Nation.

I’m a little saddened by this; however, having said that, it still won’t prevent me from being as giddy as a little kid on Christmas Eve.