As always, youll be getting the baseball equivalent of the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade this afternoon at Fenway Park.

Speeches! Introductions! A first-pitch ceremony! A flyover!

Oh, and now that Major League Baseball and the Red Sox in particular are forging ahead with a campaign to grow the game inside the heads of the little ones, look for there to be a sort of Chuck E. Cheese element to todays Red Sox home opener against the visiting Washington Nationals.

And its all right and proper. The Red Sox always put out the good china for Opening Day, or, as we call it around here, Calling in Sick Day. (But only in the aftermath of the 1967 Impossible Dream season and not, as many would have you believe, since the beginning of time.) Fenway is indeed a special place on Opening Day, with the twin powers of anticipation and nostalgia crashing into each other like Fisk and Munson at home plate; as such, the urge to drop everything and head over to Kenmore Square is far more intoxicating than the beer youll quaff once you get there.

But if theres one thing weve always known about the Sox, its that the selling is easy when the product is good. And its been a case of so good, so good, so good so far with your 2015 Red Sox. By capturing the first two road series of the season, against the awful Philadelphia Phillies and the awfuller New York Yankees, the Sox will be sitting pretty atop the AL East when they trot out to the chalk lines in their crisp, new home whites.

You look at these Red Sox and you ... you ...

You wonder if perhaps Clay Buchholz was on to something when he issued Hes the Ace T-shirts to his comrades in the starting rotation (last nights horrific start against the Yankees notwithstanding).

You watch the fluidity with which Dustin Pedroia is moving around and conclude that, yes, hes back.

You determine that the 2015 scouting report on Brock Holt is the same as the 2014 scouting report on Brock Holt: can come off the bench and play anywhere, and swing the bat like Ty Cobb.

You understand that Xander Bogaerts seems to have figured it out ... that Justin Masterson just might be the steal of the year ... that nobody will steal off Sandy Leon ... that Rusney Castillo is just a phone call away.

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Buckley: Good times at Fenway