Believe it or not, yes, still alive. I watched the Yankees-Red Sox tilt last night, as un-entertaining as it was. Randy Johnson looked good, though not as good as the New York Times's gushings this morning made it seem he was: he was wilder than I've seen him in the past, though the ~40 degree starting temperature might have had something to do with that, even if he wasn't nervous. David Wells was as bad as advertised, though. When a guy who absolutely relies on his control hits Jason Giambi twice, once on an 0-2 count, you know it's going to be a tough night.

The ovation for Tino Martinez when he came out to play defense for Giambi was heartwarming, even for an avowed Yankee-hater. He can still hit a little (.290 EqA last year) and he's always played good defense (career Rate of 107), so he ought to be a nifty little addition for the Yankees, particularly if he's going to keep sprawling full-on over the right-field line to take away late-inning doubles.

Neither team is as good or as bad as they respectively looked last night, though I think we saw some seeds of what's to come: an awesome, if not quite as awesome as years past, season from Randy Johnson; a still-powerful Yankee offense; a disappointing-to-Sox-fans year from Edgar Renteria; and a Boston bullpen full of all sorts of tricks and surprises that could be dominating on some nights and have guys go "Sproing!" and "Ga-long!" on others.