As a Red Sox fan for lo these many years, I found myself on the edge of my seat last night in the bottom of the ninth inning waiting to see if the Sox could pull off their second World Series sweep in four years and when Jonathan Papelbon blew his 94 mph heater past the Rockies' last hope, I let out a cheer and felt the euphoria a fan feels when his team goes all the way.
As Bob Ryan pointed out in the Globe, it didn't feel the same as in 2004 when 86 years of angst-ridden emotion was finally purged, but yea, it still felt pretty darn good. As Terry Francona said in interviews after the game with ever-obnoxious Jeanne Zelasko from Fox Sports, "This doesn't get old." No, I don't imagine it does.
The Boston Globe sports section is all over this as you might imagine with pictures, videos, a nice montage of newspaper headlines from around the country and lots of other goodies The Globe has all of its columnists working every angle. The New York Times even has a respectful story by Tyler Keppener, who writes, "They have gone from exorcism to coronation in record time. The Boston Red Sox, who fought ghosts for most of the last century, are the premier team of the new millennium." Wow! Heady words for a New York writer, I must say.
My favorite quote comes from young phenom, Jacoby Ellsbury, whose catch against the wall in the 9th inning of Game 4 helped snuff out any last hope for the very credible Colorado Rockies. In his story, This Time, The Red Sox Bulldozed their way to the Title, Jayson Stark from ESPN quotes Ellsbury as follows about his big catch:
I was thinking, 'I'm going to get this somehow,'" he said. "If I had to climb the wall. If I had to run through the wall. But it wasn't landing.
That's a guy who was toiling in Double A ball a couple of months ago. Love or hate the Red Sox, you have to love that attitude.
As you might expect, the Denver Post wrote of disappointment, that the dream had died. That team kept coming and coming. They simply fell short. They made it further than anyone believed, but that doesn't take away the sting of disappointment. Boston Red Sox fans understand that better than anyone.
This is uncharted territory for a fan who grew up watching the team rise in the spring, only to fail each Fall. I watched Bucky Dent's home run in 1977, saw the ball squirt through Billy Buckner's legs in 1986, witnessed Grady leaving Pedro in too long in 2003, then I saw the franchise purge its demons in 2004. Just to make it to the World Series twice in 4 years is a major accomplishment, but to win it both times by sweeping the opponent, well, that's just a little unbelievable. Young fans, who only know of the 21st century Red Sox, don't quite get that this just doesn't happen all that often.
And because I was there through it all, this year, I felt at peace. I felt no matter what happened, we always had 2004, but you know, winning again may not be the same as 2004, but it still feels good. Congratulations 2007 Red Sox. You are a heck of a baseball team.
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