Red Sox

A quick shoutout of congratulations to the World Series champion Boston Red Sox. Though the Colorado Rockies were a nice Cinderella story, Boston was clearly the best team in baseball this season. From start to finish, the Sox looked like a force to be reckoned with and proved it, once again, in October.

Three years ago the Red Sox captured the attention of sports fans nation wide as they made a remarkable championship run after an 85 year championship drought. Even casual sports fans grabbed hold of "The Idiots" as they made the most improbable comeback in history against the hated Yankees and ran right through the Cardinals in the World Series. That team was easy to rally around. They were dirty, scruffy, average looking dudes. They lacked the pretty boy image that seems to follow the Yankees. They banded together and played AS A TEAM. That was a refreshing change from the "Spend Money Now, Worry About Chemestry Later" mentality that has overrun Major League Baseball. (Not that plenty of Red Sox weren't making tons of money but nothing compared to the Yankees and anyway, it was easy to overlook the money they made when they all looked like Hobos or Cavemen.) Red Sox Nation, which was already about 10 million strong, grew as fast as finger slammed in a car door.

Now let me tell you that this year's team is even more spectacular.

"The Idiots" are no more and only seven players from the 2004 team remain. And yet if the 04 team matched up against the 07 team, 07 would dominate them in 4 games.

David Ortiz is still one of the most clutch hitters in the history of the game. Manny Ramirez, for all his quirks, is fantastic to watch at the plate (and amusing to watch in the outfield as he routinely putters to line drives and continually throws to the wrong bag yet still seems to get the job done). The youngsters, Jacoby Ellsberry and Dustin Pedroia, seem to play the game with a passion that many young players lack and more importantly, they stepped up at just the right time. Josh Beckett is the most dominant postseason pitcher in baseball (and Curt Schilling could be considered number 2). Jason Varitek is, in my book, the best game managing catcher in baseball. Jonathan Papelbon has given the 07 Red Sox a SHUTDOWN bullpen presence they badly lacked in 04.

Even the manager, Terry Francona, has gone from fairly unknown to one of the most respected managers in the league. I don't know how many times his moves were questioned over the course of this postseason, but it's safe to say if sports writers were running the Red Sox they would have lost 120 games this season. The man is a genius. And then you have Mike Lowell (who is sure to be the subject of his own blog entry before too long). Old Man Winter, as I've come to call him, provided both an on field spark, with timely hits and incredible defense, along with locker room leadership on his way to World Series MVP. His presence on this team was invaluable (and probably earned him about 10 mil a year!).

The fact that this team cost about 200 million dollars to put together doesn't come to mind the way it does with the Yankees because, just as in 04, this group plays with a sense of workmanship and unity. There are no distractions on this team the way ARod has been in New York. Even Manny Ramirez, who often sticks his foot in his mouth when speaking with the media, comes off as comical ("just Manny being Manny") rather than obnoxious or offensive. The Red Sox are a real TEAM and it shows in the way they have continually fought back against all odds over hte last few years. In 04 they were down to their last out against the Yankees...and proceeded to win 8 straight games to close the season and wrap up the championship. This season they allowed the Yankees to get within 2.5 games of the Division Championship after jumping out to a huge lead. Then after losing 3 straight to Cleveland, the Sox won three straigth elimination games to get back to the Series. This team is NEVER out of it. It's very easy for even the most casual sports fan (or a hardcore sports fan who speaks FERVENTLY against the mortal sin of bandwagonning like me) to latch onto the Sox, to rout for their success.

So congratulations to the Red Sox. It was a joy to watch in 04 and maybe even more a joy to watch in 07. Here's hoping that the Team remains the priority over the individual because the Sox have several more championship banners to raise outside Fenway if they do.