April 14

BOSTON -- People just stood there, some waving their arms, some shouting, some just staring as if the past were walking across the field, from Carlton Fisk to Bucky Dent to Mike Mussina ... or Carl Everett heading for the exit.

In a period of 22 hours, all that passion, all that history that is the relationship between New England and the Red Sox came back, as suddenly as Shea Hillenbrand took Mariano Rivera to the Coke Bottles atop The Wall and Jason Varitek threw out Alfonso Soriano to end the most improbable of afternoons. "We can care again" a man cried out. "It's all right to come back out, Red Sox people. It's fun again. Right, NO-maahr?"

This was a 22 hours the Red Sox badly needed early in this season. "Does this mean we're going to win the pennant? Of course not," said Trot Nixon, after beating the Yankees on Friday and Saturday. "But after the way last season finished, the fans needed this. We had a great spring training and we came north believing in ourselves, but two days like this still helps. A lot."

Friday night, Boston won with Darren Oliver shutting out the Yankees for 17 outs, Jose Offerman bouncing a hanging El Duque Hernandez breaking ball inside the first-base bag and Ugueth Urbina coming out of the bullpen to boos and surviving a rocky ninth inning for a 3-2 victory. Then Saturday ... "This game is a measure of where we are as a team," said Varitek. "There's a lot of character here. There's a lot of talent. But the personalities of teams vary from year to year because of who comes and who goes, and I think we have something special here."

This was a game in which Pedro Martinez was down 4-0 before he recorded his second out. They got a three run-rally started off David Wells when Rickey Henderson got a leadoff walk and stole second, but were still trailing 6-3 in the eighth. Only Ramiro Mendoza couldn't retire the two batters he faced, and when Jason Giambi bobbled a groundball -- the fourth double play the Yankees failed to turn, which helped lead to six runs -- it brought Hillenbrand up against Mariano Rivera, two out, one on, 6-5.

"Last August, I'd have probably gone out in two or three pitches," says Hillenbrand. "But I'm trying to learn to hit. I'm getting better." In what was his sixth remarkable at-bat in the two games, Hillenbrand took Rivera to 3-and-2 and when the great reliever came in with a high, inside fastball, he crushed it out onto the afternoon horizon. Red Sox 7, Yankees 6.

And if that weren't enough, Alfonso Soriano pinch-ran for Jorge Posada with two outs in the ninth and tried to steal second on a 2-1 pitch. Understand that Boston catchers were 0-for-14 throwing out runners at that point -- because of their pitchers' inability to hold runners (although Varitek actually was throwing as well as he has in his career).

Out.

Game over.

The Red Sox team that ended 2001 in disgrace with poster boy Everett, the team that lost 10 out of their last 11 meetings against the Yanks and were 10-22 against the team about whom their fans obsess since the third game of the '99 playoffs, had won two improbable, raucous one-run games.

Reality? Mike Mussina was scheduled to pitch Sunday, Andy Pettitte Monday and then Roger Clemens Tuesday. That the Yankees, after Saturday, were 1-5 the last two Aprils in Fenway, and, in fact, Rivera had lost a dramatic game in Fenway last April.

But these games were not about the Yankees, who will be in the playoffs barring plague and pestilence striking down their pitching staff. They were about the Red Sox, who at this time last year had their Nation convinced they were going to the World Series (one radio station had a "Yankee Elimination Party" promotion), then lost Varitek and Martinez and never really got Nomar Garciaparra back from wrist surgery, and ended in a front office/managerial/lout mess.

Garciaparra hasn't hit a ton yet, but he appears healthy and intrepid. Varitek has been right around .300, and his throwing belies the results. Johnny Damon has brought a slashing energy, and, converting to the starter role, Derek Lowe has had two very good starts.

But the 22 hours at Fenway centered on three critical issues:

1. Pedro. The box score line (5.1 IP 3 H 5 R 4 ER 3 BB 7 SO) was hardly impressive. But after the first inning, in which Derek Jeter hit his first pitch, a get-me-over fastball, into right-center, and Posada unloaded the bases with a triple on an 0-2 fastball that stayed flat, Martinez allowed one hit, and the final run -- put on base in the sixth on a borderline 3-2 walk -- was allowed by Rolando Arrojo. Martinez clearly is still searching for a consistent arm slot and release point; he lost it at times and fastballs were ugly.

We all realize that when a pitcher is hurt, command is a more significant sign than velocity and the two hit batters and three walks may be construed as a worse sign than clicking on 93-94 and touching both 95 and 96, but the fact is that in the first four innings he had but two swings and misses at his fastball, and had four in the fifth inning when he fanned the side. Pedro says "I'm feeling more comfortable with my shoulder," which indicates that he is still getting over the hump of thinking more about opposing hitters than his shoulder. In time, if healthy, that will change.

	Shea Hillenbrand Third Base Boston Red Sox Profile
	2001 SEASON STATISTICS GM HR RBI BB OPS AVG 9 4 12 2 1.192 .400

2. Shea Hillenbrand. Numbers guys don't want to hear this, but this guy is one of the most fascinating and compelling stories going. Yeah, yeah, yeah ... he never got 20 walks in a minor-league season, he had 13 in 492 plate appearances last season, he's almost 27 years old ... and yet he's got a chance to be one of those rare guys who gets it late because he realizes what plate discipline means and has addressed it. "I got to the major leagues last year and knew no idea about plate discipline, pitch recognition or anything like that," says Hillenbrand. "No one ever mentioned it to me in the minor leagues. Then I got to the majors, and it was obvious. I had a good first month, then pitchers began working on me and it was a struggle not to swing at almost everything."

He dedicated his offseason workouts to strength and conditioning and visualization, and from the outset of spring training tried to be more discipline. In his first 20 plate appearances of the regular season, he took the first pitch, which while often getting him down in the count didn't worry him, because he is a contact hitter who doesn't have the conventional fear of batting with two strikes. "What it's done for me is to allow me to see more pitches," says Hillenbrand. "The more pitches I see, the better I recognize certain pitches. I have a long way to go, but I know I'm better." Friday night, he fouled off a tough El Duque slider in his first at-bat, then took three pitches for a walk. He laid off a tough 1-1 curveball his second at-bat, held off a 2-2 breaking ball later and hit a wicked line drive on which Rondell White made a great leaping catch. Saturday, he took a borderline 1-2 pitch from David Wells in his first at-bat. He jumped on an 0-1 fastball for a hit the next time up and eventually got to 2-2 on Rivera before jackhammering the ball out.

"It's absolutely amazing what this kid has done," says Yankees hitting coach Rick Down, who helped teach Hillenbrand in Boston last season. "But he's got ability and he's willing to learn. He's going to be a good one. Watch."

3. Personality. Grady Little came in and took away the edge from the day he walked in the clubhouse, and he doesn't have to worry about the intensity of mainstays like Garciaparra, Nixon, Varitek and Hillenbrand. But the personality mix of the bench has changed this team's makeup dramatically. Henderson, Carlos Baerga and Rey Sanchez have brought a swagger that the Red Sox needed, as well as a sense of humor. "I think Baerga is as important as anyone," says Little. "He's always going. He's a cheerleader. When I pinch-ran for him in Friday's game, when he got to the bench he was on Rickey for not having his jacket ready for him, and the whole bench was cracked up. Not only that, but he's our best pinch-hitter."

Baerga, of course, hadn't played in the majors since 1999. In the meantime, he bought the Bayamon franchise of the Puerto Rican Winter League (and led them to the championship) and realized "how much I love this game and missed it. I cannot express how happy I am to be back, how grateful. This is a joy." A little different from the cancer ward of 2001. By the way, of the main group of players who got Jimy Williams fired, one, Carl Everett, can't play in the field, and none of the others are in the major leagues. As for lineups, Little got every position player into the starting lineup in the first five games, a la Williams.

While 22 hours in April were important to the Red Sox, there are serious issues that will determine how good they are, although Doug Mirabelli insists the Red Sox will "be in the playoffs and won't be the wild card." There may not be a player in baseball more important to his team's fortunes than Martinez, because, other than Lowe, the starting pitching is still an issue. John Burkett and Dustin Hermanson are working back from injuries. Frank Castillo has had two good starts. Oliver had one. Tim Wakefield is always available for every duty imaginable.

While there have been some very good signs in the bullpen -- in particular, Casey Fossum and Sun Woo Kim, who hit 94 and dominated the Yankees Friday night -- Urbina's velocity and command have struggled, while his heart has gotten him through five successful save opportunities against one blown and one loss. Ugie is an issue to be watched. Hermanson is a possible replacement, maybe even Fossum.

If the Yankee were to lose even Rivera, arguably their most important player in this seven-year run, they have Mike Stanton, Steve Karsay, Mendoza and the revenue to go get anyone they want. With the pitching depth and with Soriano and Nick Johnson developing towards stardom, with the additions of Giambi, Robin Ventura ("How great has he been for us?" asks Joe Torre) and White, they clearly remain the team to beat. They just don't talk about it, because they remain one of the most modest, respectful delegations of great players in memory. "Unlike teams like the A's or the Braves, we don't have a swagger," says Bernie Williams. "It's just the way we are. There's a confidence, but not a swagger. We're a quiet team."

The Yankee players don't have to tell anyone that since Pedro beat them on that October, 1999 Saturday, they are 8-0 in Fenway afterAugust. They know they have Mussina, then Pettitte, then Clemens, then El Duque, then Wells, and that in a business where George Steinbrenner will bring in more than $240 million in finances and has a new TV network that needs October, they can afford whomever they want (Clifford Floyd? Brian Giles? Danny Graves?) whenever they want him.

But everyone knew that about the Yankees. "What we know is that the Red Sox are very good again," says Torre. New ownership re-energized fans, then these 22 hours restored their right to hope, and hoping against Yankee reality is what New Englanders have passed from one generation to another since Hoover was president and Ted Williams was in junior high.