"But when the dust had finally settled,

And the air had quickly cleared,

Things were better off than I had feared." --Jimmy Buffett, adopted Floridian

The dust has begun to settle. Haywood Sullivan is in Florida.

The Red Sox owner/general manager flew down to Winter Haven yesterday to preside over the most dangerously interesting session of spring training the franchise has seen since the Winnipeg years began in '67. And while Jim Dorsey and Glenn Hoffman are checking in to the Winter Haven Holiday Inn, Sullivan--who is operating out of his own house this spring--will be trying to make a deal.

He'll be talking to Los Angeles about catcher Steve Yeager, who is in danger of losing his starting job to steady Mike Scioscia. He'll be talking to the catching-rich Oakland A's, probably about ex-Yankee Mike Heath. He may even be talking to agent Jerry Kapstein about Carlton Fisk.

Sullivan helped to confirm two long-suspected notions this winter. The first is that he is a man of principles, and as such is not likely to back down on any position--so in all probability, scratch Fisk. The second is that many Red Sox fans do not agree with those principles.

But in Florida, everybody believes in the magic of spring training. The optimism of the next few days--Joe Rudi can probably shag flies in the Florida sun as well as or better than Freddie Lynn; after all, he's been doing it longer--will be like a March afternoon spent in the stands at Chain-O-Lakes--pleasant, but not very meaningful.

In the next six weeks, Sullivan and new manager Ralph Houk--who still had Lynn, Fisk, and Rick Burleson penciled in his opening day lineup when he accepted the job--will have to reconstruct a team that has not shown flashes of a winning attitude since September '79. Carney Lansford, acquired in the Burleson trade, will help, but the muddle up the middle (Hoffman? Nichols? Miller?) caused a recent caller to a Boston talk show to remark that "every ground ball hit over second base will turn into a triple."

Sullivan's other assignment will be to rebuild some credibility with the Boston media. TV's Bob Lobel and play-by-play man Ken Harrelson are only two of the media figures who have openly criticized the regime. These things don't show up in the pre-season ticket sales ("We're only running behind one percent")--part-owner Buddy LeRoux) but unless Houk or Frank Tanana is a magician, the empty seats will be there come April.

Maybe it all just seems so bad because of how good it was. Look at Toronto, Cleveland, Seattle, even Minnesota--you won't find a Jim Rice, a Lansford, a Dennis Eckersley or even a Dave (.321) Stapleton on anyone of them. Maybe it's the natural pessimisn of a life-long Red Sox follower (and they do always do better when they're least expected to).

Maybe so.

Maybe we're just being overly pessimistic. Hope so...