Pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, new this year with the Red Sox, takes a break from drills with teammates yesterday at the team’s minor-league training complex in Fort Myers, Fla.

AP / Steven Senne

FORT MYERS, Fla. — They get paid an awful lot of money, many of them multimillions of dollars, to play baseball for the Boston Red Sox.

And even though some of them are 40 years old, they all look more like elementary school students, exchanging hugs, smiles and tales of offseason exploits when they get together in the clubhouse as another spring-training season dawns.

The physical labor to prepare for the 2007 season doesn’t begin until today, when the Red Sox pitchers and catchers will engage in their first official workout at the team’s minor-league complex.

The last few days, though, were days in which the players could become reacquainted with old friends and get introduced to the new kids on the block, notably Daisuke Matsuzaka, the 26-year-old right-handed pitcher from Japan for whom the Sox have shelled out $103.1 million in their effort to bolster the starting rotation and erase memories of last year’s disappointing third-place finish in the American League East.

The Sox have been practicing how to bow to their new Japanese teammates, who include a left-handed pitcher from Japan, Hideki Okajima, as they have unpacked their bags in preparation for training camp.

And, while yesterday was a day in which the players underwent physicals and had only a brief conditioning workout, featuring agility drills, their enthusiasm for starting up again was unmistakable.

“This is always a fun time of year, coming in and seeing new faces and seeing your ‘family members’ for the next eight months,” said pitcher Josh Beckett.

“I’m very excited,” echoed catcher and team captain Jason Varitek, a nine-year veteran who will turn 35 in April. “It’s always exciting to have the opportunity to come back. You appreciate it more and more as you get older.”

Today, the fans from New England will be flocking to this complex, which features five fields. Fans have been attending Red Sox spring training for decades, but there will be a few major differences here this year.

The arrival of Matsuzaka has spawned great interest in his every movement in camp from the Japanese media. The number of credentials for Japanese media has reached around 120, leading the Red Sox to forge a business arrangement with Funai, an electronics company in Japan.

Funai is sponsoring a media tent behind the right-field fence of one of the closest fields to the clubhouse for use by the Japanese media.

Yesterday, for instance, Varitek was interviewed by the usual media corps at the customary spot on a bench behind the clubhouse, and then he was led to the Funai tent, where he was asked questions by Japanese media, with 10 TV cameras trained on him as well as a dozen still cameras, and with 40 reporters huddled around him.

Otherwise, it will be the same old comforting routine at the complex the fans have come to know well.

The palm trees will be swaying in the breeze, with the temperatures expected to rise above yesterday’s un-Florida-like 61 degrees under a cloudless sky.

The tent housing the souvenir stand was set up opposite the back of the clubhouse, which opens onto a walkway that leads to the fields. That walkway will be lined today by hundreds of Sox fans, hoping to get an autograph or a quick, close-up photo of one of their heroes.

There’s also a concession stand, with round bar-style tables for fans to stand around as they gobble their hot dogs and drink their sodas. Yesterday, the large red umbrellas that will provide shade for the patrons were bundled up against the strong wind that buffeted the complex, but they’ll probably be open today.

The players will be concentrating on getting themselves into shape and honing their skills in the six-week training session. Pitchers and catchers always start a few days early because pitchers need the extra time to get their arms strong and loose. The position players will report in time for Thursday’s first full-squad workout.

Manager Terry Francona couldn’t wait to get going.

“It’s so exciting to see the players come in after not seeing them for a while,” Francona said yesterday. “It’s exciting to get the uniform on and get to go out on the field. We’ll break out the baseballs [today]. Each step [of spring training] is exciting because that’s what we’re here for.”

So the scene is set for the beginning of another season for the Boston Red Sox.

Hope, it is said, springs eternal. And spring training always brings hope to the Sox and their fans that this could be another World Championship year.

skrasner@projo.com