What Was The Red Sox Starting Lineup For Your First Home Opener in Person?

The Gray Eagle

The Gray Eagle

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The funniest part is putting Mitchell in the biggest RF in baseball. I mean there's no way to arrange that trio into a decent OF, so I guess they just let Greenwell stay in left where he had experience and put O'Leary in CF because he was "faster" than the others.
Jose in RF and Mitchell at DH would probably have been better, and Canseco was horrible out there.
Lee Tinsley, Dwayne Hosey and Milt Cuyler seemed like Willie Mays in the OF compared to those guys.
 
moretsyndrome

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The onset of the Butch Hobson situation.
It was so freaking cold and windy. I drank a lot, Viola got crushed, yeoman's work by Harris kept us in it and the LOOGY and Darwin's corpse blew it.
 
RG33

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John Marzano Olympic Hero said:
This was quite a lineup. Four former MVPs! Six guys who should be DHing! Two criminally underrated Sox! And a guy who would go on to the front office of the Evil Empire. Wow. This lineup brings me back to college.
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Okay, you stumped me. “Four former MVPs!” ?? Unless you are double-counting the Greenwell/Canseco 1987 thing, I am lost. Mo, Canseco, Mitchell. Who is the 4th ?
 
John Marzano Olympic Hero

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RG33 said:
Okay, you stumped me. “Four former MVPs!” ?? Unless you are double-counting the Greenwell/Canseco 1987 thing, I am lost. Mo, Canseco, Mitchell. Who is the 4th ?
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I'm a dummy. I meant to type four former MVPs on the team, Clemens was the fourth.

It's crazy to me that Nomar was on this team at one point too. The names on this roster. Wow.
 
RG33

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John Marzano Olympic Hero said:
I'm a dummy. I meant to type four former MVPs on the team, Clemens was the fourth.

It's crazy to me that Nomar was on this team at one point too. The names on this roster. Wow.
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Ah, gotcha.

Trot and Nomar making their early appearances, the Reggie Jefferson Career Year, and some 3-time SB winning DNA in the bullpen. Fun team.
 
Norm Siebern

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Friday April 6, 1973. I was 11. Red Sox beat Yankees 15-5. 1st time in history that a DH was used (Ron Blomberg of the Yankees had the first DH AB). This started a stretch of 14 straight years that I attended the home opener. That ended in 1987 when I got my first (real career) job out of state.

1. LF Tommy Harper
2. SS Luis Aparicio
3. 1B Carl Yastrzemski
4. CF Reggie Smith
5. DH Orlando Cepeda
6. 3B Rico Petrocelli
7. C Carlton Fisk
8. 2B Doug Griffin
9. RF Dwight Evans
SP Luis Tiant

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS197304060.shtml
 
zenax

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While I never attended a Red Sox opening game, my first game at Fenway Park was during the afternoon of August 21, 1952. The Sox won 4-1 and while there were a couple of notable players in the box score, there were five Hall of Famers on the autographed ball I got from the Indians (the person who took me to the game worked in Lynn with the bother of the Indians catcher).
box score from bb-ref

(scroll up when link opens to get Cleveland's box score and down to get play-by-play)
 
Big Papi's Mango Salsa

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Mine was the 2005 home opener. We shelled out the $400 a ticket to sit in the bleachers, and it was worth every penny.

I want to see how close I can get to just straight up remembering it by position, and I'll see what I can come up with.

Wakefield started the game, so I assume Dougie was going deep at C as well.
1b - Millar
2b - Bellhorn
3b - Miller
SS - Renteria (I think he was signed in the 2004/5 off-season).
LF - Manny
CF - Damon
RF - Nixon
DH - Papi.

Edit - got it, though I fully admit to having no recollection of Matt Mantei ever being on the Red Sox.
 
The Gray Eagle

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The only actual "Opening Day" I've been to was in late April, in 1995-- pushed back by the strike.
Attendance is listed as over 32,000 but there were far fewer people there and tickets were available from scalpers for face value or lower, which is how I got in.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS199504260.shtml

Aaron Sele and the bullpen shut out Kirby Puckett, Chuck Knoblauch and the Twins 9-0.
Lineup:

10 Luis Alicea 2B
13 John Valentin SS
33 José Canseco DH
42 Mo Vaughn 1B
27 Mark Whiten RF
39 Mike Greenwell LF
15 Mike MacFarlane C
11 Tim Naehring 3B
38 Lee Tinsley CF
36 Aaron Sele P


Turned out to be a good year. We won the division by 7 games over the Yankees as Tim Wakefield (who officially joined the organization on "Opening Day") was magical for most of the year.

I had tickets for Opening Day 2003, but it was raining pretty hard so we didn't even go into the park, just waited in a bar to see if the game would be played. It was not.

https://dailyfreepress.com/2003/04/14/sox-stymied-by-spring-showers/

The heavy rain that moved through the Boston area Friday afternoon may have postponed this year’s Red Sox home opener, but it failed to dampen the atmosphere at Fenway Park’s pre-game festivities.
The home opener was postponed for the first time since 1996, and eventually rescheduled until August following another bout of bad weather on Saturday. However, Sox fans still turned out in droves to take in the spectacle of Opening Day.
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For some reason the Detroit Free Press had a pretty detailed description of the Fenway festivities.

Steady rain and cool temperatures made it feel more like winter than early April, and fans could only laugh when Red Sox commentator Sean McDonough called Opening Day a ‘sure sign of spring’ during the pre-game festivities.
Before the rain arrived, however, Fenway was electric with excitement as fans poured into Kenmore Square. A band played as crowds passed by and Cracker Jacks were handed out to fans already laden with free goods.
Souvenir shops bustled and the smell of sweet sausages filled the air as vendors returned to Lansdowne Street after their winter-long hiatus. Over two hours before game time, the sausage vendors had lines so long it was difficult to determine where the line ended and the crowd began.
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I still regret not going into the park to see Ray Charles and Lou Rawls sing. I was sure they wouldn't bother bringing them out there in the pouring rain and wind, since it was obvious the game would be postponed. But they did.
Around 1:30, the pre-game ceremony began. The ceremony included a performance of the national anthem by three-time Grammy winner Lou Rawls and a soulful rendition of ‘America the Beautiful’ by Ray Charles, who sported a Red Sox hat for the occasion and was welcomed by cheers of ‘Yeah, Ray!’
This year’s Opening Day festivities also sported a patriotic flair. Yellow ribbons adorned posts in each section of the park and fans waved American flags. Children with parents currently in the Persian Gulf threw out the ceremonial first pitch with Red Sox greats like Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Rice.
As a steady rain began to fall, however, the initial excitement of the day quickly dampened.
The game, scheduled to start at 2:05, never began and fans that had eagerly anticipated baseball at Fenway were told they would have to wait until Saturday.
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pk1627

pk1627

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1980. Lineups given above. It was Eck vs. Morris, both in HoF. The previous day in Milwaukee Fisk said “screw it” and came back ahead of schedule from his injury. I simply drove to Fenway last minute, found a street spot and got a bleacher ticket. I think it was $5.
 
strek1

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Never got to attend a HOME OPENER but the very first time I went to Fenway was on April 20, 1968. It was a field trip with the Cub Scouts.

Louis Tiant was the starter for Cleveland!

Mike Andrews Second Baseman
Joe Foy Third Baseman
Carl Yastrzemski Left Fielder
Reggie Smith Center Fielder
George Scott First Baseman
Joe Lahoud Right Fielder
Rico Petrocelli Shortstop
Gene Oliver Catcher
Jerry Stephenson Pitcher

The Sox ended up winning 3-2
 
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Manny homered in first home AB and that was essentially as good as things got in 2001
 
Humphrey

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Carbo Loading said:
1979 was my first and only home opener
Opening Day lineup
2 Jerry Remy 2B
7 Rick Burleson SS
19 Fred Lynn CF
14 Jim Rice DH
8 Carl Yastrzemski LF
15 George Scott 1B
3 Jack Brohamer 3B
24 Dwight Evans RF
10 Bob Montgomery C
43 Dennis Eckersley
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I went to that game. My first was this one, very poorly attended (23K might have included seats sold, the game was postponed a couple times) , even though it was a nice day. https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS197404110.shtml

A team with a lot of holes in its lineup. Rico and Fisk must have been injured (no clue who Terry Hughes was and my God, Monty batting fifth with Jim Palmer on the mound?). Nevertheless, went into September in first place, then fell apart.
 
CreightonGubanich

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My only home opener was 2007, and my college roommate and I bookended the season by attending Game 2 of the World Series as well as the opener (Curt Schilling's final Sox game). Lineup for the opener:

Julio Lugo SS
Kevin Youkilis 1B
David Ortiz DH
Manny Ramirez LF
JD Drew RF
Mike Lowell 3B
Jason Varitek C
Coco Crisp CF
Dustin Pedroia 2B

Josh Beckett SP

Funny to see Pedroia batting ninth while Lugo leads off. Odd-year Beckett with a great start, 7IP, 1ER, 8K, 0BB.
 
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