The Boston Red Sox To Honor The World Champion Boston Celtics

By now on this Friday morning, you all know that the Boston Celtics won the NBA championship by humiliating the LA Lakers. Since the turn of the century, Boston has six world titles among the four major sports (baseball, football, hockey and basketball). No other city can make the same claim, and we here in New England and all of Red Sox Nation and Red Sox International should be proud. I know I sure am. It's only the fourth time an NBA team won it all in the same city as the previous World Series champions. That's something very special. And tonight, before the game with the St. Louis Cardinals, the Sox will honor the "Green Team" with a pre-game ceremony that will be attended by all the Celtics. And that's just great. Here are some thoughts from Kevin Youkilis and his manager, Terry Francona...

"I think in this city right now, there's a certain air of confidence you have to have to play in this city and I think that the big thing is, the Celtics have that," Francona said. "It's not easy to play in this city. It's obviously tough. But at the same time, you get the support that you probably don't from other cities. There is a lot of pressure to keep up with the norm, so I guess they're keeping up with the norm."
"It's great for those guys to win a championship," said Kevin YoukilIs, who was part of both Red Sox championship teams. "It's great for anyone to do something you've never done before. Your whole goal as an athlete is to win the whole thing, so that's great for those guys."

Peter here. The Red Sox will honor the Celtics tonight before the opener of their three-game set against the Cardinals. There will be a pregame ceremony attended by the Celtics, including the ceremonial first pitch, and the Red Sox will wear green jerseys, as they did last April on Red Auerbach night. I think it's a great idea and I can't wait to see the sea of green Celtic jerseys and tee shirts that will fill the Fenway seats. Speaking of Fenway, here are the pitching matchups for the Cardinal series. Most notable is Saturday's return-to-action start for Daisuke Matsuzaka. Here you go...

Kyle Lohse (8-2, 3.77 ERA) vs. Tim Wakefield (4-4, 4.19) tonight
Mitchell Boggs (1-0, 5.56) vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka (8-0, 2.53) Saturday
Joel Pineiro (2-3, 4.02) vs. Jon Lester (6-3, 3.18) Sunday

I see two victories right off the bat (pun intended). But these games are not played on paper. Tonight should be an extra special one in the city of our dreams, and I hope you will all get a chance to at least see the pre-game fest. It's been a long time since 1986, when the team of Larry, Kevin, the Chief, DJ (we miss you SO much) and Danny took it all, and I remember it so well. So have fun, enjoy your Friday, and tune into NESN for the entire pre-game ceremony. You can click on the title of this post to be linked to the Boston Herald's home page, which has a wonderful photo collage and full coverage of the Celtics Rolling Rally, video included (sound on). As always, be well. And I'd love to see and respond to any of your comments. Here's a comment from Constant Reader Keith, one that warmed my heart...

"You've got a wonderful site for me to visit every single day."

Peter here, and that was just part of his comment. Thank you Keith...I appreciate you coming back EVERY SINGLE DAY. It makes this all worthwhile. And that goes for all my readers. What would I do without you? P.S. I know...I'd be writing a diary!