And rest assured, a nation was.

Not to mention the one here.

From the perspective of most Americans, at least when it comes to baseball, there is not much of a difference between KC and BC. The Royals simply aren’t that good and neither are the collegiate Eagles. But when a man prompts a team to spend $103 million on him and then records nearly half of his outs (21) on strikeouts (10), You can understand how he became baseball’s answer to the face that launched 1,000 ships.

“It was nice to see him get off to a good start,’’ said Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, who, on the inside, was undoubtedly jumping up and down as if on a pogo stick. “It was a real organization-wide effort to get this guy. We put a lot on the line.’’

That they did.

To the point where we had to wonder if Sox officials had spent their recent nights partying with the Cincinnati Bengals.

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As for Matsuzaka, he was typically understated in his assessment of the game, which is consistent with his personality. He certainly did not come to the major leagues to beat up on the Kansas City Royals. Matsuzaka had a career record of 108-60 with a 2.95 ERA during his career in Japan, and he became something of a national hero when he pitched his high school team to a championship in a prestigious national tournament. From that point forward, he became as much a staple in Japan as raw eel.

As for the Red Sox, they clearly believe they have reeled in The Big One here. Most every large market team pursued Matsuzaka over the winter, but he ended up in a Boston baseball market that is as passionate as the one in Japan. Now Matsuzaka is 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA following his first major league start, whomever it was against, and the bottom line was that he burst into the major leagues yesterday like a gust of fresh, spring air.

“It was fun to watch,’’ Schilling said.

Indeed it was.

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