Champions Again!

Our 2004 World Series apparel is not yet even tattered or faded, but their replacements are flooding department stores all over New England. Your Boston Red Sox are once again kings of the baseball world. Asking a sports fan to compare championships is like asking a parent to compare children. It can't be done. They are each special in their own way but one thing is certain.

You cherish them all.

As we bask in glory of another championship, now might be the time to describe how radically things have changed for Sox fans in the past four years. The euphoria of a second title can be enjoyed even more by remembering what life was like following this team P. C. (Pre-Championship).

To bring that point home, I have resurrected an email I sent to Kevin in New York and Corey in College four short years ago. I sent it in the despondency of Grady's Meltdown in Game Seven 2003. Reading it now, in the afterglow of a second World Series championship, is almost comical Like some bizarre satire you would read in The Onion or the National Lampoon. As you read it through, try and remember what life was like back then. How we felt. How we ached. How we always feared we would never get to embrace the joy of winning it all. Herewith, a father's lament. An artifact of our now happily forgotten tortured past.

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October 16, 2003

Good morning, boys.

I was hoping this day would never come, but unfortunately there is no way I could protect you from it. We have talked about the past; you have watched old tapes; you have seen the history on ESPN Classic. But this is different. You have now lived through it.

Last night was your initiation, your induction, your baptism. You are now a fully vested, card carrying, broken hearted member of Red Sox Nation. You must now lug the baggage that has been piled on for 85, no, now...86, years. The chain remains unbroken. To Enos Slaughter, Pesky "holding the ball," Denny Galehouse, Longborg on two days rest, Ed Armbrister, Larry Barnett, Bucky "Bleeping" Dent, Calvin Schiraldi, Bob Stanley and Bill Buckner we can now add...Grady Little.

I can not say if it is the curse or not, but it certainly is fate. Maybe it makes us stronger people, better able to handle the hard life of a New Englander. That is faint consolation, especially with the recent wounds still so fresh.

I would urge you to get out now, to spare you from further heartache, but I know it is too late. You now have shed blood. You can never get out. You are forever committed and scarred.

I apologize for starting you on this road. I probably should have covered your little heads with Yankee caps when we brought you home from the hospital. That was your only chance.

Hopefully this will all end someday. Maybe not in my lifetime, but hopefully in yours. Until then, enjoy the good times, for there will be many. But understand, as you now have fully experienced, that those good times will ultimately end. Usually tragically, twisted, unexplained...but never unexpectedly.

We move on. This too shall pass. Spring will come again. Pitchers and catchers will report. Split squad games will be played. The season will begin anew. The playoff chase will resume. The cycle will continue. But I will leave you with the story of Sisyphus who is fated for all eternity to push the boulder to the top of the hill only to have it roll back and crush him on the way back to the bottom. We almost pushed the boulder over the brink this time, but alas we have been run over...again.

We must trudge down to the bottom of the hill once again. The boulder awaits. Let us pick ourselves up and in few months, begin another push.

Love,
Dad
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I share that letter with you not to bring you down, but instead to add perspective. The win in 2004 broke the back of the pain in that letter. The 86 years wasn't a curse, but it was something. Something awful that all Sox fans lived through.

My overwhelming feeling after Foulke softly tossed "the ball" to Mientkiewicz that night in St. Louis was relief. Happiness yes, but mostly relief. I spent that entire post season hoping we didn't lose. Knowing we had a chance. Especially after the comeback against the Yankees, my only thought was that I couldn't bear to go through another hearbreaking loss.

Which brings us to last night. That is the biggest difference between 2004 and 2007. In 2004 we had melodrama, Greek Theater, hopes and prayers from beyond the grave, decades of angst all rolled into one. In 2007, we simply have the best baseball team on the planet, playing their best at the right time.

No ghosts to exorcise. Just an exciting display of hardball from a finely balanced blend of youth and experience jelling to win 11 games, seven in a row, to take home a richly deserved trophy.

In 2004, it was about the past. In 2007, it's about the present and future. No baggage, no tears, no emotional release. Just enjoyment and pride, a fist pump for a solid team that led basically from start to finish. For a team that finally outlasted the Yankees in the regular season (and yes I think that means something.) A team that dug out of a 1-3 hole against a talented Indians club. A team, in this way like the 2004 bunch, that faced iminent playoff death, survived and then would not be denied. The Rockies, this year replacing the Cardinals in the role of hapless foil, falling like paper mache before the rolling Sox juggernaut.

So enjoy New Englanders. Be proud of this team. They gave us a great ride all summer (although we always found an never ending font of things to complain about). They did it again. We are champs once more.

Rejoice.

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Show Me The Money

Red Sox Nation is rolling to the Rockies and most of the fan base is expecting them to return to Boston with their second World Series championship in the past four years. The Rox came in on a roll, riding a magic carpet ride through what increasingly is looking like a vaporous National League Playoffs.

On the field, this appears to be a mismatch. There is little mystery about why that is the case. Just look at the team's payrolls.

As the stunned sports columnists in Denver shake off the pixie dust from the amorphous Rockie run of 21 of 22 and ten straight against clearly inferior competition, they are beginning to hint at what an unfair fight it is, given the disparity in payrolls. I can understand that. I have played that card myself in relation to the Yankees even though a Sox fan complaining about the Yankee payroll is patently absurd.

And as much as we want to say it ain't so, it is. The Sox $142 milion payroll is almost three times the size of the Rockies $50 million. The starting nine man Sox lineup that started the first two games cost John Henry $74 million. The Rockies starting nine? $25.5 and $16.6 of that is Todd Helton!

The four man starting rotation the Sox roll out is worth $26.2 million, or almost four times the Rockies four man group which clocks in at $7.8. Interestingly enough, the key pitchers in the Sox bullpen, Paplebon, Okijima, Timlin, DelCarmen and Lopez are earning $5.1 million. That is actually LESS than the Rockies bullpen crew of Corpas, Fuentes, Heges, Affeldt and Morales which comes in at $5.6.

So what does it all mean? Mostly that Theo has more money to bury his mistakes. If you look at the everyday lineup, Pedroia, Youkilis and Ellsbury together make about a million or $500K less than Kazuo Matsui. The Sox legendary 3-4 of Manny and Papi pull in $30.3 million, but the Rockies thumpers, Holliday and Helton bring down $21 million. It's when you get to the bottom of the order where you see a ridiculous disparity. Drew (6), Tek (7) and Lugo (9) haul in an unbelievable $33.7 million. Compare that to Hawpe, Tulowitzki and Spielborg who combined earn $1.1 million or approximatley ONE THIRTIETH of the Sox trio.

So you would think with those kinds of differences, the Sox should be that much better. In the first two games, they have been. But the beauty of baseball is that the players do not bring their paystubs out to the field before they play. It's what they do on the field. And although the Rockies lineup has looked completely feeble against the juggernaut Sox, they could wake up at any time. Especially at home with their season on the line.

You have to feel good about the Sox chances, but don't be lulled into a false sense of security just because the Boston boys have bigger wallets. With the enigmatic Dice K and the Human Adventure Jon Lester going in the next two games, there is a distinct possibility that Ace Beckett may be called upon to pitch another pivotal game five with the series tied at 2-2.

The Sox still have some playing to do. And the size of their salaries won't help them one bit.

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A look forward.

With one victory firmly in hand, Sox fans around the world can start to breathe a little easier regarding the Olde Towne Team's chances in the 2007 World Series. As the old saying goes, however, momentum is only as good as the next day's starter; no one should know this better than the Colorado Rockies, who have now won 21 of their last 23 games and find themselves down one game to none in the Series.

So will the scrappy upstarts from the senior circuit be able to get on a hot streak before next Wednesday, or will your Boston Red Sox be able to close the door and establish the American League dominance that has become painfully obvious to the rest of the country?

Let's look at what will be the deciding factors for both sides.

For the Colorado Rockies...
1.) Ubaldo Jiminez! Josh Fogg! Aaron Cook! These three men are the starting pitchers standing between the Rox and a broom-assisted elimination. Not exactly Koufax and Drysdale, to be sure, but you have to think they'll be more effective than Jeff Francis. On the other hand, they put up ERAs of 4.28, 4.94, and 4.12, respectively...and Aaron Cook hasn't throw a competitive pitch since August. Hmm.
2.) Matt Holliday and Todd Helton. These guys are both very good, as my fantasy teams from the past five or six years can attest. Unfortunately, I'd never actually seen Holliday before last night in my life, despite the fact that he's already accumulated 103 homers and a .380 OBP in his first four seasons. Todd Helton, on the other hand, is finishing up his eleventh season as the undisputed "Only Guy You've Ever Heard Of From The Rockies."
3.) Coors Field and Rocktober!!! I've never believed in the widely-held theory that home-field advantage is most important in basketball, and this series could be Exhibit A in my defense. Not only will the absence of the designated hitter dramatically change the lineup that won the Sox 96 regular season games, but the physical playing surface features a significantly different atmospheric pressure. The wildcard in Denver will be the hometown fans, who heard about the Rockies' success during halftime of last weekend's Broncos/Steelers game. Will the team with a storied history stretching back as far as the feature film Jurassic Park have its fans riled up and ready to go, or will they go more in the direction of the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks and resort to explaining the rules of baseball over the loudspeakers between at-bats?

And for your Boston Red Sox...
1.) J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo. The poster children for the big-ticket Sox have led to many angry phone calls from Tom in Boston, but their timely resurgence could be quickly rewriting the history books. I've been saying all along that Drew would produce a hit or two in the postseason that would be replayed endlessly for the next twenty-five years, to the point that Sox fans of the future would reflect on the 2007 season and say "Man, J.D. Drew was a great signing for that club." He already has one of those hits (the Game 6 grand slam), and I wouldn't be suprised to see another one in the next week or so.
2.) Jon Lester. Thanks to Tim Wakefield's ailing back, Lester will probably be getting the nod for a Game 4 start in Denver. The silver lining of this decision is that we'll probably get to see another Josh Beckett start. The Sox unfortunately don't have much of a choice in the matter, however, and Lester will be forced to try out his Houdini act on the grandest stage of them all. Let's just put it this way: How many great pitchers can you think of who are famous for working out of jams on a regular basis? That's right, none, because they don't find themselves in jams in the first place. Lester doesn't throw strikes and subsequently finds his pitch count pushing the low 100's after 4 2/3 innings of work. A pleasant suprise from Mr. Lester on Sunday night would be most welcomed, but I won't be holding my breath.
3.) Clint Hurdle. Perhaps the biggest asset the Sox bring into this series is the managerial acumen of Mr. Hurdle. We've already seen his genius at work in Game One; whether using a backup outfielder as the DH in the number 9 slot in the batting order, playing the infield in in the second inning of a two-run game with Manny Ramirez at the plate, issuing two intentional walks in the first four innings, or burning the fifth starter and secret weapon in the fifth inning of a five-run game, Hurdle is obviously doing his best to get noticed. Let's hope he can keep it up.

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Pennant Fever!

Well they did it. And they did it impressively. 30-5 in the three elimination games and 23-4 in the final two in Boston. Despite the lopsided scores, the games were tight and the Sox stepped up. Another flag, the fifth in my lifetime and a second trip to the World Series in the past four years. It doesn't get better than that.

So as we wait for Game 1, we have a couple of days to bask in the afterglow. The tension that we have been living through since the Sox fell behind 3-1 last Tuesday has been temporarily lifted. We are the American League Champions of 2007!

Ok, that's enough. Now on to the Rockies to seal the deal.

What do we know about the Colorado Rockies? Not much.

They play in the clearly inferior National League, but have been on an unbelievable run winning their last ten games in a row and 21 of their last 22. Can they be stopped? Hopefully so.

So herewith a few tidbits about the upcoming battle with the rolling Black and Purple.

1. The Rockies, as hot as a pistol, have not played a game since October 15. That will be a 10 ten layoff. No matter how much momentum you have, that will certainly be a factor.

2. Remember when you were young and were playing by yourself bouncing a rubber ball off a wall and playing imaginary games with imaginary teams? When I did it, I used to make up names for the players, the crazier the better. I think someone did that with this Colorado team. Yorvit Torrealba, Troy Tulowitzki, Josh Fogg, Ubaldo Jiminez, Manny Corpas, Kaz Matusui. No way those are real names. The best part will be listening to the growing-feebler-by-the-minute Tim McCarver hurt himself trying to remember and pronounce this group. Remember, he once called Bronson Arroyo Brandon. How do you think he will do with Ubaldo Jiminez and Troy Tulowitzki? Should be a laff riot.

3. The Rockies pitching staff looks weak on paper but has been invincible in the post season. Game 1 starter Jeff Francis, Fogg and Jiminez all had ERA's over 4.00, IN THE NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR GOD'S SAKE! And keep in mind that means the pitcher hits ninth and the NL version of Julio Lugo/Coco Crisp bat 8th. So if they are over 4.00 against 7/9th of a lineup, how do you think they will do against the Sox. (And no snide remarks about a lineup with Lugo and Varitek being no better).
Unfortunately, this could be a tough matchup for the Sox in terms of styles of pitchers. Francis is a 6'5" lefthander who induces grounders, something that has baffled Sox hitters all season. Think Andy Petitte. Franklin Morales is another left hander with a low 90's fastball with great control, another Sox-killer type hurler. Lefties are hitting .129 off him so Papi and Drew (Kielty time?) could be in for some trouble. Fogg is a soft tossing right hander and righties are hitting .305 off him so he could be face some difficulty with Manny, Pedro, Youk and Lowell. Jiminez is a right handed flamethrower with a 99 MPH fast ball. Think Fausto Carmona. (See games 2 and 6, ALCS). I'm in for that.

4. The Rockies can hit. They took two of three from the Sox in June, as EVERYONE is reminding us. Matt Holliday (.340, 36 HR, 137 RBI) is a legit NL MVP candidate and he is surrounded by Todd Helton (former batting champ), Tulowitzki (24 HR, 99 RBI) and Brad Hawpe (116 RBI). Helton and Tulowitzki have been slumping in the postseason, so let's hope that continues.

5. The Luck Factor. Baseball is a game of breaks. From Game 2 through 4, the Indians got every break in the book as they galloped to the 3-1 lead. Starting midway in Game 5, the breaks started to go the Sox way, and things were in full Red Sox Horseshoe Mode in Games 6 and 7 (see two ground balls taking bad hops off the lip of the infield). To win 10 in a row and 21 of 22 you have to have a boatload of luck and good breaks. That's good. The Rockies used it all up in the NL playoffs. Everything evens out over time, and there's no way Colorado can stay lucky through the World Series as well.

Bottom line? I was three for four in the LDS missing only by picking Philly over Colorado. I was one of two in the LCS, missing only by picking Arizona over Colorado. So the third time's the charm. I think the superiority of the AL wins out and the Sox finally turn the Cinderella Rockies into pumpkins and fittingly, it will take place on Halloween night. Sox in 6.

Let's go get another one.

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Here we are.

Well, they took it one game at a time, and won them both. Now we find ourselves in a familiar position - Game 7. Momentum now resides with the Olde Towne Team, but we are left to wonder if that will be enough to punch their ticket to the World Series.

I'd love to analyze all the matchups and breakdowns of tonight's game, looking for any keys or indicators that could provide an insight to the climactic game, but quite frankly I'm too jittery.

When the Sox were down 3 games to 1, I wasn't all that upset; during the first half of this series, the Sox were playing the same type of baseball they had tended to play during their slumps throughout the season. While others called for wholesale changes, I hoped Tito would hold the line with the personnel decisions under the assumption that "you have to dance with the girl that brought you," and that girl has been looking good for the past two games.

When the lineup becomes Ortiz, Manny, and seven automatic outs, its tough to squeeze out a victory. But look what's happened the past two nights - Pedroia and Youkilis getting some breaks at the top of the lineup, Lowell providing some cagey veteran experience in the five hole, and even the much-maligned J.D. Drew slugging a game-breaking homer to blow open Game 6 in the bottom of the first inning.

(Incidentally, I told you so. I had a feeling Drew would erase five months of frustration will several well-timed hits. He's provided at least one. Let's see if he's gonna give us any more at the best possible time.)

When the lineup is producing, they will score runs. When the pitchers are tossing like Beckett and Schill did the past several nights, they will shut teams down.

But has Daisuke Matsuzaka learned enough since Game 3 to keep the Sox alive tonight deep into the ballgame?

I've heard a lot of people thinking Matsuzaka will join the parade of redemption that marched through Fenway last night (Drew's grand slam, Gagne's clean inning, Ellsbury taking Crisp's place in the lineup, Lugo's 2-RBI double). Some have predicted Matsuzaka will spin a seven-inning masterpiece, channeling the young Japanese prodigy that tossed 17 innings and 250 pitches of championship ball in high school.

I'd be happy with five solid innings and a lead, then Beckett for two, Okajima in the 8th, and Papelbon in the 9th.

Pennants are few and far between in the world of major league baseball. The Sox have one in their grasp. Either way, this Game 7 will be discussed for years and years to come. Hopefully it will be a sweet memory instead of a bitter one.

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It's the Pitching, Stupid

And so we live for another day. The Dead Sox are alive. So what is the difference between the listless team that sleepwalked through two dreadful losses in Games 3 and 4 and the vibrant ball club that bounced back with season saving 7-1 win last night? No surprise. The pitching of Josh Beckett

This is no great revelation by the way, but baseball now and forever has been controlled by the pitching. Think of the great baseball cliches:

- Good pitching beats good hitting.
- Momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher
- Good pitching makes good coaching (I think I made that one up, but it's my favorite)

Any doubts that pitching is the key to winning baseball were erased in the events surrounding the ALCS this past week. With Josh Beckett on the mound, the Sox looked unbeatable, which they have been. Two starts. Two wins.

With the Three Cabelleros (Schill, DiceK and Wake) the Sox have looked like a lackluster group of futile banjo hitters. Three starts. Three losses.

The fact is the lineup is what it is, as Kevin in New York rightfully points out. It has its strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes it will click, and at other maddening times it will get shut down by distinctly average pitchers like Jake Westbrook and Paul Byrd. Yes we (me?) can scream about "shaking things up" to get something going (and who can argue that Coco needs to be put out of his misery soon), but the reality is that like most teams, and this Red Sox team especially, will go only as far as their pitching will take them.

Let's go to the numbers.

Josh Beckett in his two starts has pitched 14 innings, given up 9 hits, 1 (ONE!!!) walk and 3 runs for a sparkling ERA of 1.93. Schilling, Matsusaka and Wakefield in their three starts have combined for the exact same 14 innings, but they have allowed 20 hits, 4 walks and 14 runs for a dismal ERA of 8.99. Is it any wonder we are losing the series 3-2?

So that brings us to Saturday night? What can we expect? Is the season going to end or are we going to a Game 7?

Well, as can see by the above, that will depend on Mr. Schilling. With three outs to go in the win on Thursday night, Schilling posted on Sons of Sam Horn game thread. His message?: "It's on bitches."

Here's hoping he can back that up. The Big Schill has proven to be one of the best pitchers on the biggest stages. The stage could not be any bigger that it will be on Saturday night at Fenway. After a clunker in game two, number 38 HAS to come up big in another season saving game. If he can baffle the young Indians with his new style, the Sox will live to fight another day, regardless of the futility of the bottom of the order. If not, the season will end on the Fenway lawn sometime after midnight on Saturday.

It's that simple. Let's hope Curt has another big game in that right arm. We need it now.

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