Ponderous thoughts I was pondering while waiting for the scientific explanation for that big ball of light in the sky that mysteriously appeared Friday:

**I was all set to rant about how New Englanders are making too much over this first-of-the-season series between the Red Sox and Yankees - after all, it was just the first game of 18 between the two teams. Of course, that comment seemed more valid when the Sox were down 6-2 and Andy Pettitte was mowing down batters left and right.

Then the Sox rallied and all seemed right with the world. The anticipated flood of panicky calls to sports radio stations was averted for at least one night.

After giving things a little more thought, I came upon the conclusion that it's actually good to have a rivalry as intensely competed as the one between the Sox and Yanks. That the first game in the chill of April could be as greatly anticipated and as well played as a three-game set in the thick of the pennant race is a rare gift, and it's something to which few other baseball cities can lay claim.

It would be nice, however, if there was a little clearer perspective by the fans in regard to relative importance in the games themselves. After all, it's not like football where there are just 16 of them in the season, and each game's importance naturally inflates. The players usually have the proper perspective. They seem to understand that each game is part of a whole, not a be-all and end-all unto itself. Otherwise, a newcomer to the rivalry such as Hideki Okajima might not have been as cool and collected under pressure as the lefty reliever was in the ninth inning Friday night.

I suppose, however, that it's easy to talk about "perspective" when you're on the winning side of the argument, so maybe I should just shut up and enjoy the ride - bumpy as it may be over the course of a full 18-game season series, of course …

**Speaking of the Sox, I understand that they were honoring the legacy of Red Auerbach on Friday and that's the reason why they dusted off those green caps and green uniform shirts they usually wear on St. Patrick's Day in spring training, but as a traditionalist, I can't say I was too fond of seeing that look in a game against the Yankees. I still have trouble accepting the fully red socks (for those players who don't wear the full pant-leg unies) and the red undershirts …

**And honestly, is there one more inch of Fenway Park that can be found that doesn't have an advertisement on it? I'm just waiting for Terry Francona to have a Dunkin' Donuts decal stuck upon his bald head …

**Speaking of the Evil Empire of doughnuts and coffee, more inroads are being made into DD's dominance in the region by Starbucks, which is close to finishing a new drive-through store in Walpole, in the parking lot of the Big Y supermarket off Route 1. And I hear that the new shopping area in Mansfield near the intersection of 495 and 140 will have a Starbucks store, which may be the only good thing about the ongoing quest of Mansfield's town fathers to pave over every inch of that community …

**Trivia question: Which former Sun Chronicle girls' basketball coaches of the year are now superintendents of their school systems? Answer below.

**It's my understanding that the final vote on the proposal to return high school basketball to the quarters format (instead of halves) will take place at the meeting of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Council at the MIAA's headquarters in Franklin on May 10 …

**Sorry, folks, but I have a real problem getting excited over the Boston Marathon when an American runner doesn't have an icicle's chance in hell of winning it …

**I hate to turn on a fellow Northwestern Wildcat, but I'm learning from my own listening and the comments I'm getting from others that Glenn Geffner, the former Red Sox front-office exec who was thrust into the radio broadcast booth this year to split time with fellow newcomer Dave O'Brien, may be the worst play-by-play broadcaster the Sox have ever had.

According to one listener, whose experience dates back to the Curt Gowdy days, "He sounds like a 14-year-old." Indeed, Geffner had experience calling college sports, minor league baseball and the San Diego Padres on the radio before he became a VP in the Sox PR department. But his efforts this far this season as Jerry Castiglione's second banana have paled by comparison to those of O'Brien, a Quincy native and ESPN veteran with a rich deep voice and a classic baseball radio delivery. And really, if you can't sound good next to the squeaky-voiced Castiglione, who makes every Sox loss sound like a death in the family, then what's the point?

**Speaking of keeping things "in-house," Patriots' coach Bill Belichick has decided not to make himself available to the local media via a press conference prior to this coming weekend's NFL Draft. It's usually one of the most unproductive press conferences amid hundreds of unproductive press conferences each year, but it's also the first time I can recall in my 30 years of covering the team that at least one team executive was not made available to the media before the draft.

However, in the meantime, you'll see or hear from Belichick on "Patriots All Access," the Kraft-produced kiss-up show that appears on Channel 5, or in the pages of Patriots Football Weekly, the house organ published by the Krafts. And I wouldn't be surprised if the NFL Network, run by the league itself, gets its share of Coach Three Rings before and during the draft before anyone else.

It's just another example of Belichick distancing himself from an independent (and possibly hostile) media corps, and getting away with it because he can …

**My only regrets about the new schedule for the Patriots is that there's not a road game scheduled on the weekend that the Mansfield High School football team is going to play St. Edward's High in Cleveland. Had the Pats been within 400 miles of Cleveland, I would have made my best effort to get there …

**I'm just waiting for Will Ferrell to take on curling in his next sports-themed movie …

**Trivia answer: Rick Smith of North Attleboro was a four-time Sun Chronicle girls' basketball coach of the year, in 1982, 1985, 1986 and 1987. But you get a gold star if you know the other - Foxboro's new superintendent, Christopher Martes, who earned the honor in 1980 and 1981 …

**Spring is a beautiful thing when it finally gets here, isn't it?

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com