What could be better than baseball at 6:00 a.m.? Almost anything, actually, but for fans of the World Champion Boston Red Sox, the early start was made worthwhile by the final result, a 6-5 extra-inning thriller at the Tokyo Dome over the Oakland A's, in a seesaw game that had a little of everything, with not much going as predicted. For example:

1) Conquering hero Daisuke Matsuzaka would shut down the A's for seven innings or so, and the Boston bullpen would finish them off.

Uh, not so fast. Matsuzaka looked nervous and wild early, allowing two first-inning runs and loading the bases in the second, before settling down and looking good in the 3rd, 4th and 5th. His final stats, 5 IP, 5 BB, 6 K, 2 runs allowed, in an outing that could have been much worse. He actually left with the lead and had a chance at a win, before Kyle Snyder came in to pitch the sixth and immediately coughed up the 3-2 Boston lead, allowing a two-run homer to Jack Hannahan.

Then, in the tenth, with the Red Sox leading 6-4 and Jonathan Papelbon looking for save number one of the season, Oakland tattooed him, scoring a run and not tying the game only because of a bonehead baserunning play by Emil Brown, who got caught in a rundown between second and third after driving in the 5th Oakland run. Papelbon eventually nailed down the save, but he looked eminently hittable.

The best performance came from unheralded Bryan Corey, pitching because Mike Timlin is unavailable, and the other Japanese conquering hero, Hideki Okajima. Both men pitched a scoreless inning for the Sox, with Okajima picking up the victory.

2) J.D. Drew would improve on his lackluster performance in 2007 in right field for the Sox.

Drew actually did help the Sox, although not in the way people might have expected. He pulled himself from the starting lineup with back spasms, clearing the way for last season's Pawtucket Red Sox (AAA) MVP, Brandon Moss, to play instead. All Moss did was go 2-5, driving in the lead run in the sixth inning and then homering in the ninth off Oakland closer Huston Street to tie the game and force extra innings. It was Moss's first big-league home run.

The man who has had trouble staying healthy for his entire career is starting out the 2008 season in typical fashion, but at least for today, it all worked out for Boston.

3) Manny Ramirez would have a monster season in this, his contract year.

This expectation, at least after one game, looks like a keeper. Manny hit the ball hard, going 2-5 with a pair of doubles and 4 RBI. In keeping with his goofball persona, Manny stood at home plate admiring his second double, in the tenth, and nearly got thrown out at second base. Some things never change.

4) Jacoby Ellsbury would hit leadoff and run wild on the bases.

After a slow start at the plate this spring, manager Terry Francona elected to take some pressure off the rookie and returning World Series hero by hitting him down in the lineup. Batting eighth, Ellsbury went 1-4 and was a non-factor offensively, but made an outstanding leaping catch in deep center field that Coco Crisp would have been proud of, crashing into the wall and barely hanging on to the baseball.

5) The Tokyo fans would be a loud and raucous bunch.

At times the Tokyo Dome seemed almost eerily silent, especially considering how loud the fans are when their own Japanese League teams are playing. They seemed knowledgeable and respectful, only really getting loud when Matsuzaka or Okajima did something special.

The clock continues to tick down to Major League Baseball's Opening Day, the day fans everywhere look forward to, beginning, oh, roughly ten minutes after the final out of the World Series the previous year. Hang on, we're down to just over a day left before the start of the new season.

In 2008, of course, MLB proves just how small our little world is getting, as Opening Day will take place in Tokyo, Japan, joining 2000 and 2004 as the only time regular-season baseball games will have ever been played outside of North America.

To celebrate the occasion, the two teams the bigwigs in charge of scheduling at MLB chose to represent the sport on this foray into Asia are, quite naturally, the Boston Red Sox and the...uh...Oakland A's?

Picking the Sox to represent MLB is a no-brainer for a couple of reasons, the most obvious being that they are the reigning World Series champs, and who better to show off the sport than its' crown jewel, based on last season's results?

The other thing that makes the BoSox an obvious selection is the fact that two key components of their pitching staff made their way to the shores of this country just one year ago from Japan - Dasiuke Matsuzaka will fill the Number Two slot in the rotation after winning 15 games in the regular season and striking out over 200 batters last year, and Hideki Okajima came out of nowhere, dazzling major league hitters to the tune of a 2.22 ERA in 66 appearances and making the A.L. All-Star Team in his rookie season at age 31.

So sending the Sox to Japan to kick off the 2008 season makes perfect sense, but Oakland is another story entirely. A glance at the Athletics active roster shows exactly zero Japanese players. It appeared Kurt Suzuki might be a possibility, but he was born in Hawaii, meaning he probably is as familiar with Japan as I am.

Now, I realize the point of the trek halfway around the world is to show off Major League Baseball, not bring as many Japanese players back to their homeland as possible, but given the intense interest Japan's people have shown in following the progress of their native players in the big leagues, wouldn't it have made more sense to send either the Seattle Mariners or the New York Yankees to Tokyo as opponents for Boston, rather than Oakland?

Seattle, it would seem, is the obvious choice. One of the closest teams on our shores to Japan in terms of distance, the city also features one of Japanese baseball's biggest former stars, Ichiro Suzuki. Wouldn't it have been a treat for the fans in that country to see Dice-K face off against Ichiro in one of the two regular-season games?

Or how about the Yankees? In addition to the fact that MLB would have had an opportunity to showcase one of the sport's biggest rivalries, the Yankees also feature one of Japanese baseball's biggest former heroes, Hideki Matsui. The same argument applies to a Dice-K-Matsui matchup that applies to Dice-K-Ichiro, and that is this: It only makes sense to offer the rabid baseball fans of Japan an opportunity to see two of their own people who have made it big in the Bigs, up close and personal, rather than Dice-K facing off against, say, Oakland's Jack Cust.

Once again - big surprise - it appears the people in charge of baseball have shot themselves in the foot. There is no doubt whatsoever the two-game series between Boston and Oakland will be a success and will be followed by other MLB regular-season matchups in the Far East, but come on, Bud Selig, you're pulling down in excess of $15 million a year, couldn't you have used a little common sense in choosing this historic matchup?

A couple of hours until the start of Game Four. Can't help thinking about my dad, who lived 76 years on this earth and never got to see the Sox win a World Series and now I'm on the brink of seeing the second in four years. Wow.

1) Del Carmen is the new Gagne.

When the Red Sox outbid several other teams to acquire Eric Gagne from the Texas Rangers, the thinking around Boston was that he would solidify an already strong bullpen and allow Hideki Okajima to pitch the seventh inning, Gagne the eighth and then Papelbon the ninth. Somewhere between Arlington, Texas and Boston, though, Gagne forgot how to get people out.

No problem. Last night Manny Del Carmen took over the eighth inning setup role, and even though he fell behind every batter he faced, missing high with his fastball which he can run up there at 94-97mph, he was able to work a scoreless inning and turn it over to the closer.

Maybe Gagne will figure things out over the winter, but if not, it doesn't seem like it will be a huge problem for next year.

2) You can take the manager out of the National League, but you can't take the National League out of the manager.

Along about the fifth inning, Tim McCarver, the resident expert on the World Series broadcasts, starting predicting how it was likely we would see a defensive replacement for Manny Ramirez in left field. Coco Crisp would enter the game defensively in center, and Jacoby Ellsbury would move to right field to help cover the spacious outfield at Coors. He even expressed surprise when Manny started the bottom of the sixth inning in left.

Terry Francona had it figured out, though, waiting to substitute and making two double-switches during pitching changes in consecutive innings, moving the pitchers spot around to avoid having to waste a pinch-hitter should the pitcher's spot come up in the following inning.

I have to admit, I didn't see it coming, but it seems to me that McCarver should have at least recognized the possibility, especially considering he spent most o####reat career playing in the National League.

3) DH? Who needs a DH?

Dice-K may not have had much of a batting stance, but he helped his own cause by pulling a ground ball single between third and short to drive in two runs during the six-run third inning. Josh Beckett, who fancies himself quite the hitter, might just be pulling for a Colorado win tonight so he can get a chance to show his stuff at the plate in Game Five.

It's unlikely there are many sports fans who haven't chosen sides already in the battle between east and west in the 2007 World Series, but just in case you are one of the handful of people who hasn't made up your mind who to root for, allow me to present a handful of reasons that may not have occurred to you why you should support the Boston Red Sox.

1) The "lyric little bandbox." Fenway Park was built nearly a century ago and is regarded as one of the true shrines in sports, a place people travel across the country just for the opportunity to watch one game in.

What that really means is that people are jammed together like a bunch of fat people flying coach, sitting in uncomfortably tiny seats and paying exorbitant ticket prices for the privilege of sitting so close to the guy next to you that you can smell what he had for lunch. It's a national treasure!

But what about Coors Field? Has anyone ever waxed poetic about sitting in the Rockies Stadium? NO! Unless of course you count the "Tastes great, less filling" debate. Oh wait, that refers to the ballpark in Milwaukee.

2) Classic uniforms. There is something traditional yet timeless about Boston's home whites with "Red Sox" stitched across the jersey in olde fashioned red lettering. Compare that comforting slice of Americana with the Rockies all-black uniform jersey featuring purple lettering across the front. What the?? Is that so the fans can make out the players against the white backdrop of snow blanketing the field?

3) Fairness. We here in New England are still smarting over the defection of Ray Bourque, one of the all-time greatest hockey players ever to lace up a pair of skates. After spending twenty-one years guarding the blue line for the Bruins, this Boston legend defected to Colorado at the end of his career in order to have an opportunity to drink from Lord Stanley's cup.

This cross-country trip became necessary when Bourque realized Boston's ownership was far too miserly to spend enough money on the team to make them competitive with the NHL's elite. Not all our teams spend billions, you know.

4) It will make you healthier. If the Sox win the World Series, the resulting annoying crush of fawning national media attention on the Red Sox will take your mind off the annoying crush of fawning national media attention on the Patriots and whether or not they can go undefeated this season.

5) You already know how to pronounce our guys' names. Since the Red Sox are featured on Fox practically every Saturday during the regular season, you don't have to spend any of your precious time learning how to cheer for Daisuke Matsuzaka or Dustin Pedroia or Kevin Youkilis or Hideki Okajima.

The Rockies, on the other hand, have guys who haven't been on TV that much. Troy Tulowitzki? Yikes. Yorvit Torrealba? My tongue hurts already.

So stick with what you know. There's plenty of room for you on the Bosox bandwagon, even if there isn't room in the Monster Seats. You know you want to do it. Jump on!

Who's happier than Red Sox fans right now?

Okay, probably Colorado Rockies fans, who are living their own little "Do you believe in miracles, Yes!" autumn, with their miraculous charge to the NL Wild Card, complete with one-game playoff demolition of the Padres to get to the postseason, and ridiculously easy run to the World Series.

And certainly execs at the Fox Network have to be jumping around their offices, smashing into walls and knocking framed Rupert Murdoch photos to the floor, with how this ALCS has turned out. It looked to be a real snoozefest after Game One, with the Red Sox systematic dismantling of Cleveland. Since that point, though, there have been two separate and clear momentum shifts, as the Indians knocked Boston down and nearly out with their seven run 11th inning in Game Two, only to see Josh Beckett grab momentum back for the Sox with his masterful Game Five performance.

So, aside from those two groups of folks (Foulkes?), Sox fans are pretty much sitting on top of the world. Their club has risen from more graves in recent memory than Bela Lugosi, but the question now is can they complete the comeback?

For me, the answer depends upon two things:

1) Selectivity by the Boston hitters. They have made a living all season long by working counts and getting into good hitting situations. They inexplicably abandoned that philosophy the first time around against Jake Westbrook and Paul Byrd, however, and paid the price. If the Red Sox hitters get impatient tonight and chase Westbrook's sinker out of the strike zone like they did in Game Three, it will be a long night for the offense with very little to show for it.

2) Daisuke Matsuzaka. Which Dice-K will show up? The guy who throws about twelve different pitches, including the mythical "Gyroball?" The guy who struck out ten men in two of his first three big league starts? Or the pitcher who stumbled through the last two months of the season and hasn't made it through the fifth inning yet in the postseason?

Here's my take: Dice-K works his way in and out of trouble through five innings, while the Sox hitters make Westbrook get his pitches up into the strike zone. Don't be surprised to see Hideki Okajima as early as the sixth inning and then Josh Beckett in a one-inning cameo in the seventh - it's his day to throw on the side anyway, then Papelbon in the eighth and ninth.

The Final: Red Sox 7, Indians 5

Any thoughts?