“...that referenced an increased pectoral size comparable to a woman's chest.”

"I prefer things quiet."

Occasional loud noises are OK, however. Like, say, the sharp thwack of a 99-mph fastball screaming out of the park in the ninth inning of a scoreless game.

Oh, and Wake? Huge props. Looking damn good. Please keep it up.

Papelbon sure made things interesting, though, eh? (As did NESN .

I enjoy being in a crowded bar on Friday night with a belly full of IPA and screaming, along with everyone in the place, as Jason Bay ties up a losing game with an out-of-nowhere homer off of Mariano Rivera with two outs in the ninth — and then screaming even louder as Kevin Youkilis wins it with a walk-off two innings later.

My Yankee hate has atrophied in recent years. It’s time to ramp it back up. Let’s do this.

* Mr. Joba Chamberlain best watch himself. If he unleashes a high one at Youk’s head again, this guy’s gonna charge the mound. Either that or he’ll untwist the top from his big ol’ jar filled with midges.

* It pains me to see my home state betray the Nation like this

A dozen or so men crowd together in Havana’s Central Park, jostling, poking, and shouting over each other. They’re arguing about baseball, like they do every day.

“Who,” someone asks, “was the best Cuban pitcher to play in the big leagues in the United States?”

An eruption of noisy opinions:

I know the Globe has problems these days, but if they can find a way to hang on to Adam Kilgore, it would be a good thing. His Extra Bases post today is the first sensible thing I've read about this team since the season started. He's one of few mainstream newspaper reporters to use more advanced metrics, and, as a result, he's able to contextualize the team's early struggles in a way that goes beyond simply looking at the baseball-card numbers, which really aren't that meaningful at this point in the year.

Can't say I knew too much about the Angels' rookie pitcher, but he sure threw a gem last night, and looked to have boundless potential.

Which makes what happened immediately after the game just that much more shocking and tragic.

Sincere condolences to his family, friends, and teammates.

Tonight's Angels game has been postponed, obviously, but one presumes this weekend's Boston-Anaheim series will be played as planned, with heavy hearts on both sides

OPENING CEREMONIES

3:45 - Players making their way through the grandstands now... don't slip on the wet stairs! Surprisingly, the fans are being retrained and not mobbing the guys...a few high-fives here and there.

3:47 - HUGE ovation for MVP Dustin. Papi with Oakleys on the brim of his cap...don't think he'll need those today.

* Guess we’ll have to wait till tomorrow afternoon to see our beloved local nine “descending the stairs from the grandstands.” From the stands? Are they for real? This positively reeks of Steinbergism.

One SoSHer’s take...

I'm already getting excited for the 2010 home opener.

First off,  good for the Red Sox for getting out in front of the weather and postponing early, rather than letting everyone drive down, pay for parking, sit around in the cold and rain for hours (all while shelling out more and more cash for hot dogs, beer, etc.) and then postponing the game two hours after the start time.

We're posting our predictions anyway, though, just so we can get on record. The usual disclaimers apply: predictions are, ultimately, a silly, meaningless exercise, and when you're trying to guess at things like individual award-winners, there's really just no point to it. But it's kind of fun, also, so why not.

They follow, after the jump:

As Wally fluffs his fur after a winter-long hibernation and the Sausage Guy scrubs down his grill, the Boston baseball season gets set to commence on Monday afternoon. (We’ll be live-blogging the 2:05 p.m. game right here at Sox Blog.)

In this week’s Phoenix, I run down a quick-hit list of nine seamhead storylines to follow over the coming 162-games.