Only days until pitchers and catchers report in 2002!

Being a baseball fan, but not a Red Sox fan, in Boston, has caused me plenty of consternation in my life. But this season I could definitely agree with Red Sox fans on some points (for example, Dan Duquette is a problem.)

It was amazing to watch the Fenway soap opera unfold this year no matter what your rooting interests were. After years of complaining about Jimy Williams, talk show hosts, columnists, and Joe Average Fans alike suddenly woke up and realized that the Emperor Had No Clothes. Gee, wasn't it Dan Duquette who said Clemens was washed up? Gee, wasn't it the Duke who ran Mo Vaughn out of town? Who said Pedro wasn't hurt and owed it to the fans to get on the mound? Oh yeah, Duquette. Now that Jimy isn't around to take the rap anymore, Duquette's flaws are glaringly obvious.

But, unlike the Boston media and Red Sox fans, I decided I had to take a different approach to recapping the horrendous season. Given that one of my problems with Sox fans and the beat writers who foment their affliction is that there is far too much negative thinking, I decided what I needed to do was set a good example, and find five genuinely good, positive things to write about that came out of the 2001 season. By genuinely good, I mean I can't put the fact that "now everyone knows Duquette's an idiot" onto the list.

I set about trying to come up with the list of five in mid-September. I'm sad to say, however, that I must admit defeat. For two months I have been polling Red Sox fan friends, reading the bulletin boards, checking the columns and season recaps in the press ... to no avail. Despite my best efforts, and even bending the "genuinely good" rule a little bit, I was only able to come up with four, not five, positive things from the Red Sox 2001 Season.

1) Shea Hillenbrand -- No, he's not the rookie sensation that Albert Pujols (or even Alfonso Soriano) turned out to be, but he emerged as a pretty steady force over the course of the long season. Before Opening Day, Hillenbrand had never played above Class AA, but he stepped right into the third base role with clutch hits and plays in the field. He was hot in the first half, and will finish the season with very respectable numbers, with more hits (118) and fewer strikeouts than Carl Everett (61). Not bad for a 25 year old kid who had to spend 45 minutes trying to get into Camden Yards on Opening Day because no one would believe he was one of the starting nine.

2) Hideo Nomo's No-Hitter -- I know that Sox fans would have rather had this gem come at a crucial time in the pennant race, but after Pedro lost on Opening Day 2-1 to the Orioles, the club needed a lift, and got one. A no-no is nothing to sneeze at, as Tim Wakefield and Mike Mussina, who both got tantalizingly close this year, will tell you. When a single game makes history, the outcome of the season is secondary for a few brief hours. So forget about how the season turned out, and think about a game you'll tell your grandkids about.

3) Casey Fossum -- Lest you think all the good news came from the beginning of the season, take a look at this skinny call up who is very likely to make the rotation next year. He's a lefty and showed flashes of brilliance and poise in seven starts. If much of the rest of the team weren't mailing it in, he would have done considerably better than 3-2.

4) David Cone's Comeback -- Anyone who has followed David Cone's wild and woolly career, from his home town team of Kansas City, the Mets of the 80s, Toronto, to the Yankees and then to the Sox, through a Cy Young award and aneurysm surgery, knows that he has suffered his share of mishaps, heartbreakers, and injuries. But to go 4-14 with the Yankees last year, dislocate his shoulder diving for a ball, and then get kicked out of New York amid much talk about being washed up? Coney needed to prove he could still pitch, and after a long rehab stint, that's exactly what he did. Cone logged two to three months in which he was the American League's most consistent starter.

5) Okay, I think I may have come up with a number five, but it will depend on how things play out this season. How about the emergence of Trot Nixon as a team leader? This will only count as a positive if "leading" this team gets them anywhere, if dissension in the ranks and disruption in the clubhouse is actually quelled. And, of course, if Duquette keeps Nixon around. It should be a very interesting off season.