The Boston Red Sox open the 2012 season on Thursday afternoon in Detroit. They’re likely to face reigning American League Cy Young winner and Most Valuable Player Justin Verlander.

There should be a buzz around the Red Sox. There should be a building excitement as fans anticipate the coming season. Instead, the only buzz is the drone of low expectations.

Red Sox Nation’s confidence is shot. Whatever swagger this fan base carried was erased by the miserable end to the 2011 season. We don’t seem to be eager for the season to start. Rather, we’re resigned to its inevitability.

Baseball malaise embraces New England. Instead of getting excited for the season, we’re in a funk, waiting for more bad news. It’s like we’re expecting the news to come down any minute now that Clay Buchholz’s back is bothering him again, Jacoby Ellsbury tripped in the locker room and cracked a rib against the side of Adrian Beltre’s old locker, and Bobby Valentine is on the verge of alienating everyone who ever stepped foot in the Red Sox clubhouse.

The Chicken and Beer Affair of 2011 still hangs over this team like a greasy, boozy cloud. It hangs over the entire fan base, really. It’s as if we collectively ate a bucket of extra crispy, washed it down with some ice cold suds, and now wallow in the indigestion and heartburn.

If there’s one thing a fan base will not abide, it’s a lack of effort. Fans saw the Chicken and Beer Affair of 2011 as a lack of effort, and as the reason for the team’s historic collapse last September.

The only way the Red Sox can turn the 2011 collapse from a filthy punch line into a funny story is win this season, and win a lot.

There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about this team. A few of those reasons include:

* Jacoby Ellsbury is coming off a breakthrough season.

* Adrian Gonzalez is another year removed from shoulder surgery.

* Dustin Pedroia. That’s it.

Instead of looking at the things that should make this team a contender for one of the two American League wild card spots, we wallow in the negative.

* Ellsbury can’t possibly duplicate what he did in 2011.

* Gonzalez is too laid back to fully succeed in Boston.

* Carl Crawford’s wrist injury will linger, making 2012 another lost season for the left fielder.

* Andrew Bailey has never pitched in Boston, so we don’t know how he’ll do.

That one about Bailey is one I don’t get. He’s replacing Jonathan Papelbon, the best closer in Red Sox history, granted. But Bailey has been an effective major league closer. To think he suddenly will forget how to get hitters out because of the glare of Boston’s spotlight is absurd.

There are questions surrounding this team, to be sure. Can a reliable fourth and fifth starter be found in some combination of Daniel Bard/Felix Doubront/Alfredo Aceves/Aaron Cook? Can Kevin Youkilis stay healthy all season? If and when he gets the chance to come to Boston and play, will shortstop Jose Iglesias hit?

The Red Sox have the talent to win 90 games and make a run at the playoffs. The problem is, many fans will spend the season waiting for it to all fall apart.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

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