⚾ I got 99 problems, and a pitch is one

It’s Thursday, Boston!

🏀 March Madness has officially made it to Boston! This week (starting today!), Boston is hosting three of the tourney’s sweet sixteen and elite eight games, including one with local fave UConn. But if you don’t want to pay upwards of $500 for a ticket, you can hop in on the action at this watch party.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• College tuition is out of control 

• The newest local bagel 

• What diners really want

Up first…

SPORTS

There’s no place like home

Baseball is back, baby! The Red Sox kick off their regular season against the Seattle Mariners today on the west coast at 10:10 p.m. EST (past our bedtime). 

So whether you’re staying up late, or just anxiously awaiting your first Fenway Frank of the year, here’s what to know about this season’s team: 

😅 TL;DR: Don’t count on a worst-to-first turnaround this season. Or a playoff berth for that matter. The sports pundits have been negative Nancys all year, with many predicting the Sox will finish just as they did last season: last place. 

😬 And frankly, they have good reason to be cynical. Last season, Red Sox owners fired chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom (the guy who traded superstar Mookie Betts and let go of Xander Bogaerts which we’re definitely not bitter about) and filled the role with former Sox pitcher Craig Breslow. This move raised expectations for an ambitious offseason and spending lots of cash on star players to turn things around. But so far, the team hasn’t made a big splash. 

🗣️ And veteran players have something to say about it … Third baseman and cheesy grin slugger Rafael Devers turned serious in an interview last month, saying ownership should have invested more in the team after back-to-back last-place finishes. “I know what we needed last year. I know what we needed this year,” Devers said (he’s referring to our pitching … it’s not great).

📈 So think of this season as the year for rebuilding (again). And it’s not all bad. There’s optimism our defense will improve with Ceddanne Rafaela starting in center field (he’s giving Jackie Bradley Jr. vibes), and there’s a good chance we’ll finish better offensively with heavy hitters like Devers hitting his peak, along with Triston Casas who finished third in last year’s American League Rookie of the Year voting. Our pitching remains the biggest question mark. 

⚾ Today’s starting lineup will likely include lots of familiar faces. See: Rafael Devers, Trevor Story, Triston Casas, and Masataka Yoshida. And fun fact: 24-year-old Brayan Bello will be the youngest Red Sox pitcher to start on Opening Day since 1995. 

😴 But we don’t blame you if you don’t tune in until Fenway’s opening day. For the second time in five years, the Sox are kicking off the regular season with a 10-game west coast road trip (Seattle, Oakland, and Anaheim) before actually playing a game at Fenway. And seven of those ten games will be played after 9:30 p.m. EST. 

🌭 The real party starts on April 9 (Opening Day at Fenway). You can still grab tickets here!

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

💰 Boston’s college tuition sticker shock is hitting. Between tuition, housing, food, and books, several private New England universities will cost upwards of $90,000 a year to attend this fall. And if you’re thinking: ‘Weren’t we freaking out about $70,000 tuition a few years ago?’ The answer is yes. At BU, hitting 90k marks a tuition increase of $27,000 since 2014. And although those prices are enough to inspire a full-on breakdown, they don’t reflect the significant impact of financial aid many students receive. Although, even that’s having its own issues this year.

🌉 Baltimore’s bridge collapse is making Mass. reevaluate our own. ICYMI: A container ship collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key bridge Tuesday, making it collapse like a house of cards. In its wake, Mass. transportation officials took some time to reassess our own bridge safety and protocols, and the results are positive. Apparently, despite the fact that many Mass. bridges do need repairing, they came out feeling confident in our state infrastructure, which is very different to Baltimore’s, making the odds of a similar incident happening here very low. 

🌬️ Boston wants in on wind power. The city has taken on a first-of-its-kind role in offshore wind development, agreeing to purchase wind power directly from Avangrid, an offshore wind project (the role is usually reserved for just states, not cities). Things are still in the early stages, but if all goes according to plan, the city of Boston can lay claim to 15 megawatts of energy, the equivalent of one wind turbine. That could meet up to a third of Boston Public School’s energy needs, while also providing enough clean energy for 5,000 homes.

 🥯 Boston’s bagel scene is popping off lately. Its latest addition? The long awaited Rebelle Bagels, spearheaded by James Beard semifinalist and MIT grad Milena Pagán, has officially opened in Kendall Square. Rebelle is serving up made-from-scratch bagels and spreads. And speaking of new restaurants, a trio of new low-key, high-concept sushi and Korean spots by local restaurant group powerhouse BCB3: Somaek, Temple Records (a 32 seat listening bar), and Sushi@Temple Records are now open as well. 

ONE LAST THING

What Boston diners want 

What advice would you give to local restaurateurs about Boston’s dining scene? That’s the question the Globe recently posed to its readers, inspired by a plea for advice on Instagram from Cambridge chef Will Gilson. And they had a lot of complaints. 

Among their pearls of wisdom that may have some merit: Social media isn’t everything, slow things down, keep service personal and kind, and if possible, keep those prices reasonable (especially when it comes to cocktails and drinks). 

But of course, there were also a fair share of nitpicky complaints: QR codes are annoying, having multiple servers is a vibe killer, and the classic: The music is too loud.

You can check out the rest of the local gripes here. 

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

💸 Thanks for reading! Give me a quiet table, some good lighting, a $15 entree and a $12  drink, and I’ll literally become a regular anywhere.

🕺The results are in: B-Side Madness round three was a tight one, but ultimately, Modern Underground and Bell in Hand beat out The Grand and Hong Kong with 53% and 56% of the vote, respectively. One reader said: “People really go to The Grand more than once?”

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].