Early schedule tough for Red Sox

Saturday, March 1, 2008 | Feedback | Print Entry

The Yankees of the Paul O'Neill years played with a unique confidence -- not a swagger, but a competitive arrogance; they went about their business with a quiet self-assuredness that yes, in the end, they would find a way to win.

The Red Sox, winners of two of the last four World Series, now possess that same well-earned trait. You can see it in the eyes of Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon and David Ortiz and, most of all, in Dustin Pedroia, who was seemingly born with it.

These Red Sox will also discover this season what those Yankees learned in 1999 and 2000 and 2001 -- because they have won so much, almost every team will come at them with extra adrenalin and with heightened focus. No visiting team is going to lag through an emotionless game at Fenway Park. The Red Sox will draw out the best in rival players.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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