The First Red Sox Homer of the Season

Kevin Youkilis hits it for 2007, breaking Big Papi's two year streak.

The Red Sox all-time leader? Yaz - with seven.

Ted did it five times, Jim Rice but once and Manny never.

Another Opening Day

Red Sox Captain Jason Varitek now needs four more opening day starts to catch up with Yaz.

Jason Varitek will make his eighth straight start at catcher on Opening Day, a Red Sox record for that position. Only four Boston players have made more consecutive starts at the same position. Carl Yastrzemski started 12 straight openers in left field from 1961-92, Harry Hooper started 10 straight openers in right field from 1911-20, Wade Boggs started at third 10 straight times from 1982-92 and Jim Rice started in left nine straight times from 1980 through 1988.

The Glory of '67

Forty years ago ...

As 1967 dawned, the Red Sox were coming off eight consecutive losing seasons. They’d lost 90-plus games for three straight years, including a 100-loss disgrace in 1965. They hadn’t won an American League pennant in 21 years, and hadn’t seriously contended for one in 15. After Ted Williams retired in 1960, attendance plummeted; the average attendance for a game at Fenway Park in the six years from 1961-66 was 10,026. Like the Bruins of today, they had become irrelevant. Their existence barely dented the Boston sports consciousness.

“You couldn’t give tickets away — no one wanted them,” Rico Petrocelli wrote in his book.

And then Yaz and the 67 Red Sox changed everything!