Neil Diamond's jacket was just one of many things to ponder after the Red Sox' Opening Night win. (AP)

Here are 10 thoughts from the Red Sox’ 9-7, Opening Night win over the Yankees:

1. One game in, but it looks like the Sox might be able to score a couple of runs in 2010. I get that the older guys are a reason for worry (and David Ortiz was a long way from vintage Sunday), but how good does a full season of Dustin Pedroia, Victor Martinez and Kevin Youkilis hitting in the 2-3-4 spots look? If any of those three players finished in the top five in MVP voting at the end of the year would you even be remotely surprised? I don’t know who winds up occupying the fifth spot in the lineup when the dust settles, but whoever it is should be an easy bet for 100 RBI with just an average season.

2. If you belong to the Staggering Overreaction Club then it might be time to worry about Josh Beckett, Short of that, Beckett’s performance on Sunday night can’t be viewed as anything more than a rough outing against a lineup that could easily end the season with the most runs in the league. It happens. Don’t forget, Beckett had an ERA of 7.22 last April and still managed to finish the season with a 17-6 record and 3.86 ERA. The fact that Beckett didn’t pitch well Sunday night should mean as much to Red Sox fans as CC Sabathia’s lousy sixth inning meant to Yankees fans: next to nothing.

3. I suspect that you’ll be reading and hearing how “the contract” is in Beckett’s head and might be reason No. 1 for his shaky start vs. the Yankees. I guess that could be true, but it didn’t seem to a problem in the first inning, when he blew through Derek Jeter, Nick Johnson and Mark Teixeira in just seven pitches. So while it may be possible that somewhere between the first and second inning Beckett started to wonder why he hasn’t signed that extension and became mentally unglued it just doesn’t strike me as likely.

4. And no, this isn’t further proof that Beckett needs Jason Varitek as his personal catcher. Though I have to admit that the Jeter/Brett Gardner double steal probably won’t play a big role in Alan Nero’s PowerPoint presentation when he makes the case for Victor Martinez as a $100 million player. To be fair, that was the finest executed double steal I’ve seen since Harold and Sherman of “The Baseball Bunch” turned the trick in a 1982 episode that guest-starred Tug McGraw.

5. As great as Mariano Rivera is (and I think a case can be made that’s he the best pitcher ever) I’m taking the Daniel Bard/Jonathan Papelbon duo over Joba/Mo. Does Joba Chamberlain ever pitch well? Joba and the girl from “Juno” are in a battle to see who can milk 2007 the longest.

6. Ramon Ramirez had a WHIP of 1.09 in the first half of the 2009 season but a WHIP of 1.64 in the second half. One bullpen question for 2010 was simply this: Which Ramirez would we see? Well, it’s early, but he faced only two batters on Sunday, allowing a seventh-inning walk to Teixeira and a double to A-Rod. Both would score in that inning, giving the Yankees a 7-5 lead and putting the Camel Clutch on any momentum the Sox had gained the inning prior.

This is why relief pitching is almost impossible to figure out. Nine months ago Ramirez looked like a solid late-inning option. Now it wouldn’t surprise me if he was released sometime this season. Bottom line with Ramirez (and Manny Delcarmen, by the way?): Too many walks. And we know that it’s too early to panic about anything, but a show of hands to see who feels good about Hideki Okajima’s prospects for a bounce-back 2010?

(Since we are talking relievers, I’m more than a little bitter that Chan Ho Park has dropped the beard he was sporting for the Phillies last season. He somehow managed to look exactly like James Brolin playing P.W. Herman at the end of “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.” And is Park really the Yankees seventh-inning guy? That’s not possible, is it? If the Yankees had a payroll of $45 million maybe I could understand Chan Ho playing a lead role in the ‘pen, but he should never be on the mound in a significant spot for the Yanks.)

7. I’ll save you the Google search now. Her name is Chelsea Tyler (yep, Steven’s daughter) and she was born in 1988. I will let you investigate further.

8. Jorge Posada’s homer in the second inning got me thinking about his eventual Hall of Fame candidacy. I think he’s one of those guys who is easy to dismiss at first glance (no MVPs, has never led the league in any category) but when you take a good look begins to grow as a legit Cooperstown possibility. How many players can claim five All-Star appearances, five Silver Sluggers and five World Series titles? If he’s not one of the five best hitting catchers in history he’s somewhere in the top 10. Posada’s .379 career OBP is a terrific number for a catcher, far better than Pudge Fisk (.341) or Johnny Bench (.342.) Or how about this?

Yogi Berra (three MVP awards): .285/.348/.482, career OPS-plus of 125

Posada: .277/.379/.480, career OPS-plus of 124

9. So that’s where my “Keep the Dodgers in Brooklyn” jacket went. As long as my Shelly Winters calendar is safe, my 1957 collection is still acceptable. And was I the only one hoping that Neil would pull a set-list change and go with a 15-minute version of “Love on the Rocks?”

10. The biggest surprise of the night was not the pair of aces struggling, or even the electric chemistry between Don Orsillo and John Lackey in a commercial that only ran 58 times Sunday night. Nope, how about a Yankees-Red Sox game that started at 8:05 p.m. and featured 32 runs, 24 hits and 11 pitchers and two way-over-the-hill singers actually ending before midnight? If you had told me that we were looking at a 9-7 final I would have set the over/under finishing time at 12:26.