It was tough living though last September as a Red Sox fan. Being eastern Canadian, from that bit that sticks out in the Atlantic half way to Iceland, you looked to the far west growing up, many of us spotting that dot on the horizon called Maine and realizing there was another culture out there that also lived on lobster. You pass on a lot of things Canadian and associated yourself with Bruins, Celtics and the then hapless Red Sox who once in a while gave hope knowing full well that it would be crushed 2/3s of the way through the season if they hadn't sucked out your will to live from opening day. Then they won. Then they won again. And then, last year, they were out in the lead coming into September only to crush you once again, perhaps in the cruelest way - they inexplicably gave up. This year, one excuse has been removed from the equation:

Manager Bobby Valentine told the team today that he has banned alcohol in the clubhouse and on team flights returning to Boston. The edict was expected given the news last fall that starting pitchers Josh Beckett, Clay Buchholz, Jon Lester and John Lackey drank beer and ate fast-food chicken while games were going on last season. But Valentine may have done it anyway, saying that alcohol was banned from the Mets clubhouse when he managed the team from 1996-2002. “It’s just what I’ve always done,” he said. “I’m comfortable with it that way.” The Red Sox are the 19th team to ban alcohol in the clubhouse, a list that includes the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers and world champion Cardinals.

There was genuine surprise I think that the club house had free beer. But, to be fair, this is no assault from those so-called forces of the neo-T-totallers. The fried chicken thing got an even stronger reaction. Hardly the image of the athlete millionaire that Gatorade ads suggest. It was that they wallowed and nothing screams wallow juice like beer during the workday. One wise voice put it this way: “ '...doesn’t matter. We’re not here to drink; we’re here to play baseball... This ain’t no bar.' Ortiz said." Will this help? Maybe. Will I renew my $60 bucks a month super dooper TV sports package on the TV giving me every one of the 162 games? Maybe for 2013.