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So some groundhog came out this morning, but that’s not today’s most important thing. Down at the Fenway, there’s an annual Florida-bound moving day like no other. Don’t knock it. Here I answer some frequent questions.
Q. Why is Truck Day such a big deal? It’s just stuff going in a truck.
A. People here love the Red Sox, including when the Red Sox return from hibernation. All any of us want is to emerge from our own hibernation, anyway, even more so after 2 feet of snow and this string of brutally cold days. So any sign of spring — a solid two months, maybe more, before it actually feels like spring and Fenway fills up — is a great idea.
Is it a spiritual thing?
All of this is a spiritual thing, isn’t it? Being a baseball fan requires an annual leap of faith. The rituals, routines, and rhythms of the sport and its calendar are as important as three outs and nine innings. Truck Day is representative of all that hope-springs-eternal stuff. And every year, those feelings are valid. As the great poet Kevin Garnett said: Anything is possible.
Baseball, fittingly, has a slow burn on the way to actual games that matter. This century, Truck Day has become the first checkpoint, an unofficial start to a new season. But then we have the first workout for pitchers and catchers (Feb. 10), the first workout for the whole team (Feb. 15), the first exhibition game (Feb. 20 vs. Northeastern), and first Grapefruit League game (Feb. 21 against the Twins). During the back half of spring training, there is Reverse Truck Day — that 18-wheeler gets loaded up for another 1,480-mile trip, this time up the coast in time for the home opener — and then, finally, Opening Day (March 26 in Cincinnati). Baseball has a lot of unofficial starts before the official start! Part of the charm.
So are you getting a higher level of anticipation for the 2026 Red Sox, and if so, why?
So far, I am sensing a significant want to anticipate, if the Red Sox give them proper reason — more exciting, roster-shaping, ceiling-raising moves.
Coming off their first playoff appearance in four seasons, their offseason has left something to be desired. They all but passed on the biggest bats on the free agent market, Pete Alonso and Kyle Schwarber, when a slugger was their most obvious need. They lost de facto captain Alex Bregman to the Cubs — a dagger to their Plan A. They pivoted to lefthander Ranger Suárez, further bolstering a rotation that features ace Garrett Crochet as well as newcomer Sonny Gray. They have a heck of a starting five (or starting seven or eight), maybe the best in baseball.
So the Red Sox are building their identity around pitching and defense, which can be successful but probably doesn’t sell tickets and inspire happy tweets the way dingers do. They still need another infielder, too, so that could come any day now. Fortunately, they don’t have to put him on the truck.
When was your first Truck Day?
2011. I had long followed the Sox growing up in Connecticut, but that year I was a freshman at BU. I lived — without exaggeration — around the corner.
I walked over with a friend and we did the whole thing: shivered, had some free Dunkin’, appeared in the background of a NESN shot or two, hooted, hollered, observed. I arrived 15 minutes late to Spanish class (oops). You can be sure I posted photos on Facebook — remember the quality of the pre-iPhone cell phone cameras? — because it was a good time. Everybody there agreed.
2011 was, of course, eventually an all-time miserable Red Sox season. The vibes on Truck Day don’t exactly have predictive power. But it is a harbinger of the baseball new year nonetheless.
Tim Healey covered the New York Mets and the Miami Marlins before joining the Globe last summer. He has run two marathons — New York City and Philadelphia — and aspires to add Boston to the list.
🧩 5 Across: Consequently | ⛅ 30° Inching warmer
Show’s over: After a series of artists canceled Kennedy Center performances, President Trump said he planned to close the center — newly renamed for him — for about two years of renovations. (WashPost 🎁)
The Patriots: Thousands of fans braved the cold at Gillette Stadium to send off the team ahead of the Super Bowl. And as quarterback Drake Maye’s wife, Ann Michael, becomes a star in her own right, the Globe’s Beth Teitell wonders how far she’ll rise.
ICE: Following a judge’s order, ICE freed an Ecuadorian man and his 5-year-old son Liam Conejo Ramos, whose detention in a Minneapolis suburb last month drew outrage. (AP) And House Republicans plan to take up a Senate-passed funding bill to end the partial government shutdown that began Saturday. The bill tees up a vote to restrict how ICE operates. (The Hill)
Midterm watch: Trump endorsed John E. Sununu over Scott Brown in the New Hampshire GOP primary to replace US Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a retiring Democrat. And a Democrat’s upset win in a special election for a Texas Senate district that Trump carried by 17 points in 2024 has Republicans panicked. (Texas Tribune)
Springfield: The city, Massachusetts’ third largest, has the reputation of a down-on-its-luck former manufacturing hub. Entrepreneurs there are banking on a downtown renaissance.
Caroline Harvey: At 23, the New Hampshire native is one of the world’s best hockey players. The US women’s team is counting on her to help it win gold at the Milan Olympics, which starts this week.
Impeachment: House Democrats’ threats to impeach Trump health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are going nowhere in a GOP-controlled Congress. But they could help incumbents trying to fend off primary challengers — or seeking higher office.
On the grid: Heat pumps, which use electricity rather than fossil fuel to warm homes, are gaining popularity in the Northeast but can be vulnerable to extreme cold. Globe readers say theirs have mostly held up this winter.
Black History Month: William Cooper Nell, a 19th-century Boston-born abolitionist and journalist, documented the role of Black Americans in the nation’s founding. He also fought segregation in Boston schools and opposed the Fugitive Slave Act.
RIP: Linda S. Wilson, the final president of Radcliffe College before it merged with Harvard, experienced the sexism women in academia faced even as she initiated a successful $100 million capital campaign and established a consortium to advance women’s studies scholarship. Wilson died at 89.
By David Beard
🎶 Grammy Winners: Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the full list of last night’s winners. Photos: Joni Mitchell, Don Lemon, Ali Wong, and Shaboozey on the red carpet.
📺 This week’s TV: The picks include a “Muppets” special, the Winter Olympics, Keke Palmer in a not-quite-normal “The ’Burbs,” and an indelible romcom. Plus, your guide to watching the Super Bowl — when, where, how many nachos.
🏡 Home of the Week: A “Top Chef: Amateurs” contestant lists this historic Berkshires home and restaurant for $630,000. Take a peek!
🍜 Warm up! Time for black bean and orange soup. Here’s how to make it.
⛸️ Life lessons: Pond skating taught this writer to strap in, look to others for help, get up after falling down — and another, often elusive trait.
💰 Tax prep time: Here’s what you need to know about filing this year.
😏 $18,000 eyebrows? People are paying to replace their overplucked arches. But they must be trimmed — or they could grow to your feet. (WSJ 🎁)
The sky glows after sunset in Nuuk, Greenland on January 21.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
Welcome to Greenland: When you go to the icy place the US president covets, you see reindeer, sure. But the Globe’s Emma Platoff also bumped into the Danish prime minister at dinner and met a Trump impersonator licking an iceberg.
Thanks for reading Starting Point.
This newsletter was edited by David Beard.
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Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.