The Red Sox won their season opener a few minutes ago, despite a very shaky outing from closer Jonathan Papelbon. (It was a night game --- in Japan). Watching Manny Ramirez getting interviewed through an interpreter by the Japanese press is a hoot; the game featured a classic "Manny being Manny" moment, when he blasted a ball that might have been out of the park, paused at the plate to admire it --- and then had to scoot off late when it didn't go out. He made it to second.

The TV post-game theme music is the opening synth riffs from "The Grand Illusion". Is somebody trying to tell us something?