Boston Red Sox: Quit Overreacting Over Opening Day Loss

There are two types of people in this world. The first type knows how to face adversity—under pressure, he or she is cool, calm and collected. The person is not over-ecstatic during moments of success and is composed during moments of failure.

He celebrates rarely. Focuses often.

Then there is the other type—the overemotional, dramatic person. The one who sees a hot girl on the street and says, "that's the hottest girl I've EVER seen!" The one who fails to put things into perspective. These are generally young people who fall into the hype of everything and believe that Jersey Shore is the greatest show ever and that Charlie Sheen is the most inspiring person on this planet.

So when the Red Sox dropped their Opening Day matinee against the Texas Rangers, in what was a sloppy pitching performance, articles surfaced like Adam MacDonald's on Bleacher Report that the Red Sox wouldn't be able to win the World Series because of this loss.

Really?

I mean, really?

Let it bake! The Red Sox have not played together with their regulars since early last season. Plus, with new additions, it will take some time for the Red Sox to consistently win games. Will it be such a huge surprise if the Red Sox start off .500 in April? No, and even if they do, it doesn't mean they can't win the World Series. The regular season is a marathon.

The people who handle adversity well like every member on the Red Sox team and coaching staff know this. Young fans between ages 18-30 do not. They overreact. Every loss is the end of the season. Every win is followed by "nobody is stopping this team."

Never forget who won the World Series last year. A San Francisco ball club that got into the playoffs in the last weekend of the season and turned it up a notch in October to win the whole thing.

Most importantly, the Red Sox had an injury hobbled team last season and they were still in the AL East division race up until the last few weeks. They won 89 games with Darnell McDonald and Daniel Nava as their everyday outfielders. Losing an Opening Day game means absolutely nothing. Having a .500 April also means absolutely nothing in terms of a team's World Series chances.

In fact, there were several things from Opening Day that were great, the most important being David Ortiz's home run. Ortiz has started extremely slow in the past few seasons. He didn't get his first home run until April 23rd last year and his infamous home run slump in 2009 sent him into an immense slump early on. It was great to see Ortiz get that first home run off his back and focus on getting into a quick start. Even with poor starts, Ortiz has hovered around the 30 home run mark the past few seasons. With a quick start he can get up to 35 or 40.

So one must weigh the positives and negatives after a loss. Don't overreact. Nothing has happened yet. The glorification of Opening Day has turned the least important game of the season into one that were people think it's a make or break situation. In reality, most people won't even remember what happened or who won on Opening Day.

And if people are not convinced yet that Opening Day means very little, then here is a newsflash:

The Pirates won their first game. And if you think they have a chance to win the World Series, then I suggest having your head examined.