Ordinarily, you'd have a hard time convincing me to spend three hours sitting in the still, sweltering Texas heat after battling traffic on I-30 for 45 minutes. But when the Red Sox are in town, nothing could keep me away from the Ballpark in Arlington (currently known as Ameriquest Field). Last week I spent three nights at the Ballpark watching the Sox take 2 of 3 from the pesky, hard-hitting Rangers, and one thing I am sure of is this: it's impossible not to have a good time when you watch the Sox play.

Thanks to the outrageous ticket prices and limited ticket availability at Fenway and the team's popularity following their first World Series victory in 86 years, the Red Sox pack ballparks across the country. If there's one thing that can be said about Red Sox fans, it is this: we know how to have fun. Watching the Sox play on the road, with thousands of other transplanted and travelling fans, is something every Sox fan should experience. Bound by the colors on their caps or the logo on their chests, Sox fans cheer from the first pitch to the last, determined to let their team know that they are supported in what should be hostile territory.

Still, as fun as road games can be, there's nothing quite like Fenway. There's nothing quite like the season's first steps through the gates, with your ticket in hand and a hint at the green field before you. There's nothing like Sweet Caroline. There's nothing like Dirty Water, and Yawkey Way, and $6.50 beer. Ok, I could do without that last one. Sure, the seats are too small, the bathrooms are horrific, and the food is atrocious. But it's Fenway Park, and next to Wrigley Field, it's the most fantastic place to watch baseball in the country.

Tomorrow morning, I board a plane bound for Boston. 29 hours from now, I'll hand over my ticket, take my first steps of the season through the gates, and breathe in the air that smells like sausage, beer, and baseball.

Someone once said that you can never home again. Thank God for Red Sox fans, you can.

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Finally.

The dotted lines have been signed, the skates are being sharpened, and the game of stick and puck, which has been MIA for 301 days, is set to return as the NHL and the Players Association have reached a deal on a six-year collective bargaining agreement.

First, the important details, courtesy of Canada's TSN:

- a hard team-by-team salary cap with a payroll of range of $21 million to $39 million (in the first year), which includes all player costs (benefits, insurance etc).

- the league's total expenditure on player costs (salaries, bonuses, benefits and insurance) is not permitted to exceed 54 per cent of defined hockey-related revenue and the salary cap and payroll range will move up or down as revenues increase or decrease each year of the deal.

- a 24 per-cent salary rollback for any NHL player who has time remaining on an existing contract, keeping in mind that the players will receive none of the monies they were slated to earn in the lost season of 2004-05.

- liberalized free agency (including unrestricted status at 27 by year four of the deal), a more restrictive entry level system, totally revamped salary arbitration, improved pension benefits and a revenue-sharing plan.

The owners have gotten almost everything they wanted at the beginning of the lockout, causing some of the players to wonder if they made a mistake when they because the first professional sports league to miss an entire season of play. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer's Ed Moran, "Last week, Los Angeles Kings center Sean Avery said that NHLPA boss Bob Goodenow "brainwashed" the membership." A few days later, Red Wings goaltender Manny Legace told the AP, "We lost a season for no reason. We should've crumbled last September when the owners wanted a salary cap. It makes no sense what we ended up doing."

Looking ahead, the offseason is sure to be full of activity as teams will be dropping well-paid veteran free agents left and right to fit under the cap. Teams will be changing drastically between now and October, when the season is set to begin. The team the Flyers took to the Eastern Conference Finals over a year ago will be get a makeover as pricey veterans John LeClair, Tony Amonte, and Jeremy Roenick, among others, will be forced to find new homes. Defenseman Eric Desjardins is almost 40, free agent Mark Recchi signed with Pittsburgh, and backup goaltender Sean Burke retired before the lockout.

ESPN.com broke down each team's current status under the league's new salary cap. Here's their take on the Flyers:

13 players under contract totaling $33.8 million - It will cost owner Ed Snider a bundle, but it's entirely possible he will divest himself of John LeClair, Jeremy Roenick and Tony Amonte, who are owed more than $16 million this season alone. Roenick might stay because he remains the team's most visible presence (or noisiest presence, depending on your perspective). The Flyers will spend to the cap's limits, and they are chock full of terrific young talent, including AHL netminding sensation Antero Niittymaki, defenseman Joni Pitkanen and '03 draft picks Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. By locking up captain Keith Primeau, the single-best player in the '04 playoffs, and acquiring Boston sniper Mike Knuble, GM Bob Clarke has once again done a masterful job of making the Flyers a Cup contender before the first puck is dropped.

Flyers fans first got a good look at Nitittymaki when he started three regular season games for the big club in February of 2004. He went 3-0 with a GAA of 1.01, a save percentage of .961, and a win against their rivals from New Jersey that saw the rookie stone the Devils on several breakaways. Since then, he has gained experience and won the Calder Cup with the Flyers minor league team, the Philadelphia Phantoms.

For the first time since Ron Hextall won the Conn Smythe Award as a rookie in 1987, Flyers fans can feel good about their netminders. Niittymaki will be playing backup to Robert Esche, the 27 year-old who went 21-11-7 in 03-04 before a sensational performance in the playoffs.

With the Eric Lindros fiasco finally in the rearview mirror, Flyers fans can also feel good about the guy who wears the C. Keith Primeau proved he deserved the extra letter during the 2004 playoffs, when he singlehandedly led a depleted Flyers team to Game 7 of the Conference Finals. In a move that angered the NHLPA, Primeau signed a deal last summer to stay in a Flyers jersey for four-years worth $17 million. The deal is not only less than market value but less than Primeau made the prior season, a move which will no doubt become the standard for the Flyers' future spending.

In addition to the other young players ESPN mentioned, there have been several rumors out of Philly that the Flyers are entertaining the idea of offering a contract to NJ Devils' Scott Neidermeyer, a fantastic pesky defenseman that has had a difference of opinion with Devils' brass regarding his future worth and could be looking for a change of scenery.

Regardless of the faces we'll be seeing on the ice come October, the important thing is that they're back. And so, it's finally time to put the well-worn VHS copies of 2003-2004's playoff games back in the attic, dig out the dusty Flyers jersey and Darius Kasparitus voodoo doll, and wait anxiously for the puck to drop.