{"id":10799,"date":"2024-02-14T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T06:00:21","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"My-Turn-Hope-springs-eternal-53954764\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=10799","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: A Valentine\u2019s Day opening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Theo<\/a>
Theo Epstein, president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs, poses with a young fan prior to a baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the Cubs at Fenway Park, Friday, April 28, 2017, in Boston.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

\n Nick Perencevich lives in Concord. <\/em> <\/p>\n

Valentine\u2019s Day, the Red Sox, solar eclipses, hope; what do they have in common? Read on! <\/p>\n

This year on Valentine\u2019s Day the Red Sox start spring training in Florida. The words \u2018Valentine\u2019 and \u2018Red Sox\u2019 in the past have been associated with Bobby Valentine, who was a disaster coach in 2012. The whole Babe Ruth trade to the Yankees in 1920 is often thought of as New England\u2019s version of the Valentine\u2019s Day massacre.<\/p>\n

After winning the World Series in 1918, they traded Ruth in 1920 and waited 86 years to win another World Series. Our last Boston World Series win was in 2018, and in 2020 they traded Mookie Betts to L.A. Are we going to wait another 86 years to win another series? Maybe! <\/p>\n

Opening day in Fenway is April 9, a day after the total solar eclipse coming to New England. Our next solar eclipse here is about 80 years away. So maybe it\u2019s in the planets and stars, but maybe not.<\/p>\n

Recently, the Sox announced that Theo Epstein is coming back to work for the organization. He, Yankees killer Big Papi, and the owner\u2019s money got us that first of four World Series 20 years ago. Epstein was a young star then who also did his magic breaking the Cub\u2019s longer curse a few years later.<\/p>\n

When he dies, his tombstone will have two words on it: curse killer. So there\u2019s hope he can do it again.<\/p>\n

The news these days is dark, with wars and dirty politics. In the 1989 movie Field of Dreams Terence Mann, played by James Earl Jones reminds us (to paraphrase) that \u201cThe one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has been rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It\u2019s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased gain. But baseball has marked the time. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again.\u201d <\/p>\n

Yes, it can all happen again! <\/p>\n

So hope springs eternal, especially in the Spring, on Opening Day, and the sun again shines right after the eclipse. It\u2019s in planets and stars. Go Sox!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nick Perencevich lives in Concord. Valentine\u2019s Day, the Red Sox, solar eclipses, hope; what do they have in common? Read on! This year on Valentine\u2019s Day the Red Sox start spring training in Florida. The words \u2018Valentine\u2019 and \u2018Red Sox\u2019 in the past…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":460,"featured_media":10800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,508],"tags":[94,24,263,505],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[590],"class_list":["post-10799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-top-headlines-cm","tag-concord-nh","tag-facebook","tag-opinion","tag-paywall","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/42922625-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/460"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10801,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10799\/revisions\/10801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10799"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=10799"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=10799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}