FORT MYERS, Fla. — Josh Beckett started the first game of the Grapefruit League season Sunday night. Did it matter? Nope.

"I think there are certain things you want to work on," he said after his two-inning stint against the Twins. Not exactly fuel for baseball-throwing adrenaline junkies.

About 11 months earlier, Beckett kicked off the 2010 regular season, serving as the Red Sox' Opening Day starter. Did that matter? Looking back, not so much.

"I did it last year and it didn't work out too good," Beckett said regarding getting the Opening Day nod for the second season in a row and then proceeding to have the worst year of his career.

So now, with one month to go until the Red Sox kick off their '11 campaign in Texas, some intrigue has started to surface. The question many want answered is: Will Beckett get the nod over Jon Lester to start the team's first game of the season, or did the righty's injury-riddled '10 campaign derail what was supposed to be at least a half-decade of starting openers?

Beckett thinks he has the answer.

"The big lefty, he's earned the right," he said, pointing toward Lester's locker. "If they want him to start Opening Day, that's his deal. It's a big honor. That being said, I don't make those decisions. I'm not really worried about it right now because anything can happen. You saw three years ago I didn't even make it out of spring training (due to a back injury). I was supposed to start Opening Day that year and I didn't start a game until the middle of April.

"It's way too early to be talking about any of that stuff. If they tell him he's going to have the Opening Day nod, congratulations to him, he's earned it. I don't think it's anything I've done. It's something he's done to earn their respect."

Beckett can talk about Lester being deserving of getting the Opening Day nod, and that the left-hander has put himself in position to be crowned the next ace, but there are a few things that should be surfaced when digesting the decision.

1. The start would mean a lot to Beckett.

The 30-year-old might have eased into it without much resistance while with the Marlins, having started Opening Day from 2003-05, but it wasn't until he achieved the honor with the Red Sox that he could truly use the designation as a calling card.

And, as he pointed out, even when Beckett earned that right to be the Opening Day starter of the Red Sox, his back prevented him from heading to Japan, paving the way for Daisuke Matsuzaka to get the start to kick off '08. It wasn't until '09 he finally found his moment, one that he felt at the time helped define his career at that point.

For most of the decade, Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling were the aces. Then it was Beckett's turn, an honor that wasn't lost on the righty.

"When you're a young guy I think it's something everybody should strive for," he said. "It's a combination of things. It's not just one thing that puts you in that category of Opening Day starters. It's a combination of things, and he's done them all."

2. Lester has qualified for consideration.

Beckett is correct when he explains the qualifications for being called an Opening Day starter "a combination of things." At least on a team like the Red Sox that's the case.

It's not just good enough to be good. If that was the case, Clay Buchholz might very well be readying himself for the start in Arlington, Texas. That, most likely, will not be the case. Not because Buchholz didn't stand out as one of the game's best in '10, but rather due to how many years he has stood on the mountain top compared to those rotation-mates he is competing against for the honor. 

Lester has turned in three straight seasons of excellence, with his latest go-round viewed as his best. He also emanates the kind of leadership which ultimately led the Opening Day title to Beckett (whom the lefty siphoned much of his traits from.) Those two qualities are what a manager looks for when making the call. And while Beckett's step back last season might not deter the Red Sox from making it three straight for the Texan, Lester's enormous leap forward could prove to be an argument-buster.

"It's something that's earned," Beckett said. "I'm not downplaying Opening Day, at all. It's important, but I don't make those decisions. The big left-hander has definitely earned to start Opening Day. He's going to start plenty of Opening Days in his career, but if this happens to be his first one, he earned it. It isn't anything anybody in here has done not to earn it, it's what he has done to earn it."

3. Opening Day is nice, but it's not the true ace-maker.

Ask both Beckett and Lester, and they'll tell you the highest honor isn't handed out in April. That can be found whenever Game 1 of the first round of playoffs come around.

"That," Beckett said, "means things have gone pretty good."

The only taste Lester has ever gotten of an Opening Day start came when he was rehabbing in Single-A Greenville in '07. But what he has already experienced is the coveted Game 1 start, getting the nod in both the '08 and '09 American League Division Series.

"For some reason Opening Day in the TV world seems to be more important than Game 1 of the playoffs. I don't know why," Lester said. "If you pitch Opening Day you're now considered the guy, No. 1, or whatever people call it. I don't know why Opening Day has taken that over the playoffs. A week later everybody is the same. I think Game 1 of the playoffs is more important than Opening Day. That being said, there's an honor of pitching Opening Day. Would it be an honor to pitch Opening Day? Hell, yeah, it would be. Is it something that is on my mind? No."

You can be sure the rest of the Red Sox staff concurs with Lester's way of thinking. John Lackey, for example, started two Opening Days with the Angels, in '03 and '07 (bookending three straight from Bartolo Colon). But it wasn't until the righty found himself starting Game 1 of the '07, 08 and '09 American League Division Series that the "ace" tag truly was thrown Lackey's way.

"On our staff, Tito [Francona] can go in there and flip a coin. Every one of us could pitch Opening Day," Lester said. "That being said, do I think there's guys on our staff who deserve it more than then other guys? Yeah. On other teams it's probably been who has been around the longest, or who has done the most for the organization. But with our team you can go out and flip a coin to see who is going to pitch and I don't think the other four guys would be mad about it."

All we know is Lester is pitching Tuesday, Lackey goes on Wednesday, Beckett takes the mound Thursday, and Buchholz is slotted for Friday. Beyond that, is anybody's guess. It's just that this year the guessing game got a bit more interesting.