The Diceman boreth
While coverage of the Red Sox is always excessive (except for the sweet deals they get from the politicians, but whatever), the arrival of Daisuke Matsuzaka will make things even worse than usual. Matsuzaka is a three-fer for the local press: he’s a talented pitcher who could carry Boston to the World Series; he hails from a culture most Americans still view as weird/exotic; and he’s got a hot wife. (Kudos to the Herald’s Track Girls, who are already covering the latter subject with aplomb.)

Look for the following angles in Matsuzaka coverage next year: stories on his pitching performance; stories on his adjustment to American culture; stories on the cultural and technical differences between Japanese and American baseball; stories on how the Japanese media are covering Matsuzaka’s Red Sox tenure; stories on how the Red Sox are catering to Japanese fans; stories on Matsuzaka’s home; stories on Tomoyo Shibata, a/k/a Mrs. Matsuzaka, as she hangs out with other players’ wives, goes shopping, looks for decent sushi, etc.; stories on Matsuzaka’s interpreter. If we’re really lucky, WEEI’s Dennis & Callahan will trot out some nasty anti-Japanese slur after a poor Matsuzaka performance, thereby subjecting us to stories on the incident in question; stories on anti-Japanese bias in the US; stories on how the Japanese media is covering the incident in question; etc. All in all, serious Matsuzaka fatigue should set in by mid June.

Moderately risky prediction: the Track Girls create and exacerbate a nasty feud between Shibata and Shonda Schilling.

Patrick’s hard landing
If Kerry Healey were governor-elect right now, she’d be facing intense scrutiny too. But Deval Patrick’s carefully cultivated image as a political superhero — one capable of returning government to the people, changing the culture on Beacon Hill, and whipping up a mean scallop risotto in his spare time — will give an extra edge to the quest for discrepancies between the real and the ideal. Patrick’s much-discussed speech at the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association, in which he urged the media to lay aside its cynicism, was a pre-emptive salvo in this pending war. The mainstream press isn’t his only problem, however; Patrick’s staunch supporters are also capable of noting that his actions don’t always match his lofty rhetoric. (“No, I really do not like the fact that wealthy individuals and corporate sponsors are being asked to kick in $50,000 a piece for the big proposed inaugural bash,” Charley Blandy of the pro-Patrick blog Blue Mass Group wrote recently. “We should have a damn good party. It should be statewide. It should be as inclusive as possible. It just shouldn’t be paid for in $50,000 chunks by those who doubtless have business before the state.”) Factor in inevitable tussling with Senate president Robert Travaglini and House Speaker Sal DiMasi, and Patrick may discover that governing makes campaigning look easy.

Moderately risky prediction: at one of Patrick’s first press conferences as governor, WBZ political analyst Jon Keller is piqued when Patrick won’t let him ask the first question. “Pipe down, Jon,” Patrick says. “Let someone else go first for a change!” Keller responds by becoming Patrick’s scourge for the next two years.

Middle East tinderbox
The Iraq War was supposed to spur a kind of benign democratic domino effect: American troops are welcomed as liberators, the Middle East gets a model democracy, freedom spreads through the region, etc. Hasn’t quite worked out that way, huh? Today, Iraq has a full-fledged civil war; the Palestinians are inching toward one of their own; Syria is trying to bring down the Lebanese government; the Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan; Egypt is cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood; and Iran is playing a game of brinksmanship with the US. How ugly will things get if the Bush administration decides to attack Iran? Even if this doesn’t happen, will Iraq’s festering Sunni-Shiite conflict go regional? Whatever happens, Democracy doesn’t seem to be on the march.

Moderately risky prediction: in late 2007, as the US prepares for its first significant troop withdrawals since the issuance of the Iraq Study Group (ISG) report, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls for a pan-Shia state uniting Iranians with their co-religionists in Iraq. Pissed that he ever listened to the ISG, Bush orders missile strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Hillary versus Barack
The old Hillary-centric narrative went like this: Clinton has the money and the organization and the 2008 Democratic nomination, unless the party faithful decide she’s unelectable and turn to one of the sundry anti-Hillarys (Evan Bayh? Mark Warner?) for last-minute salvation. But now — following a rock-star reception during his first visit to New Hampshire, which evoked comparisons with Bobby Kennedy — Illinois senator Barack Obama suddenly looks capable of wresting the nomination from Clinton. Not by serving as a fallback for skittish Dems, mind you, but by out-organizing and out-fundraising and out-inspiring his New York colleague. Of course, neither Clinton nor Obama has actually said they’re seeking the nomination — and even if they do, another candidate (John Edwards?) could nab it in the end. That said, Clinton and Obama will be circling each other like wary heavyweights for the next few months, looking for angles of attack while trying to avoid possible missteps. And the media will cover their face-off in exquisite detail.