Opening Day, take 2.

Red Sox (1-1) vs. Oakland (1-1)
(resumption of 4 game series from Japan)
Game 3 Tue 10:00EST: Matsuzaka (0-0, 3.60) vs. Blanton (0-0, 4.76)
Game 4 Wed 3:35EST: Lester (0-1, 9.00) vs. Harden (1-0, 1.50)

Raise your hand if you've ever seen a series in which all four starting pitchers pitched two games apiece in cities 5,000 miles apart?

Anyone...anyone...Bueller?

Didn't think so.

The maddening mystery tour that is the start of the 2008 season for the World Champs continues tonight when the Sox resume their 4-game set with the A's, this time in glorious Oakland, which last time I visited the Bay Area was a far cry from the site of the first two games of this series, Tokyo.

And luckily for us on the East Coast, instead of waking up before dawn to catch our Sox we have to stay up past 1:00am to see the entire first game of the regular season to take place in America. Yipee!

Wait, aren't the champs supposed to have the scheduling advantages the following season? What is Bad Hair Bud taking his scheduling cues from the NFL?

All lamenting aside it's just nice to see the Sox playing actual games that count in the United States. And it will also be nice to get away from the media circuses that have plagued this club since they set down in Tokyo a week and a half ago. Between that surreal scene over there and the farce exhibition game against the Dodgers last Saturday that drew 155,000 spectators, it will be a welcome change to play in the cavernous yet quaint (attendance-wise) Oakland Mausoleum.

Dice-K will get a chance to redeem himself far away from the fanfare befitting a movie star he received in his homeland, and hopefully being away from all those distractions will help him focus on the task at hand this year: pitching consistently and becoming the dominant pitcher everyone has been waiting for.

He's shown flashes of brilliance since coming to the Sox last season, but the up and down aspects of his starts have started to look more like a pattern than an aberration. perhaps pitching in front of 22,000 fans who couldn't care less about him will help improve his game.

It's almost time for Opening Day number 2, and we should be in for a late night.

Let's hope we at least go to bed happy.