Beckett's bad back=bad news for Bosox

It was one thing to have the defending champs open the season 6000+ miles away from home in what promised to be a most untimely road trip, but now it appears they will have to do so without the services of their number 1 starter, ace Josh Beckett.

Talk about things going from bad to worse.

The Red Sox righty and reigning Cy Young winner (shut up, I know he didn't win, we're just ignoring that small fact) tweaked his back while warming up for a Grapefruit league start on Saturday, and after initial diagnosis downplayed the significance of the injury and an MRI confirmed no serious damage to the area, the last couple of days have only seen his condition improve mildly, therefore putting his opening day start on March 25 in Tokyo in jeopardy.

According to a report in today's Globe, Tito and co. have not ruled out Beckett making the Tokyo trip, where the Sox will play two exhibition games and two regular season games against the A's before returning to the country, but as ESPN.com's Jayson Starke put it, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that a 17-hour plane ride is not the best therapy for an ailing ace with a balky back.

Combine that bad news with the fact that Dice K was already doubtful for the trip back to his homeland due to the impending birth of his child (anyone else see the irony in that?),and what you have is a team trying to defend its title by travelling halfway around the world to play 4 cash-grab, errrr, goodwill games without its two best starters.

Sounds like a surefire recipe for a repeat to me.