Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Fenway Park.
Those are pretty fantastic words on any given day. On Opening Day? They're a different kind of special. And today? On the Opening Day after a World Series win?
Today the Red Sox will receive their rings, they'll raise their banner, and they'll don their (spiffy new) caps. Every Opening Day for every team comes with pageantry, but for one out of thirty, it's something more. It's a last collective look back on a historic year before moving forward in pursuit of the next. It's the victory lap five months overdue.
There's a baseball game to watch today. And right now that tends to hold positive connotations when it comes to the Red Sox. But unless some truly crazy shenanigans go down in these nine innings, it's what comes before--and everything it represents--that we'll be remembering for a long time to come.
So yes, let's get settled in for some pageantry. Because they've damn well earned it.
Go Red Sox!