E-Mail This Article to a Friend WORLD SERIES BLOG BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

Thursday, October 28

Check back Friday afternoon for Sporting Eye's recap of the Red Sox' championship.

So what's Fenway Park and the Kenmore Square area like the day after? In many ways, you'd never know there were multitudes of revelers taking over the area the night before, celebrating their team's four-game whitewashing of the Cardinals. The city of Boston's clean-up crew must have been out in force before the sun came up, shooing away the remaining riffraff and following the team's lead in engaging in some serious "sweeping." The only evidence I saw in Kenmore Square of any kind of suspicious behavior was some stray potatoes (some mashed) at curbside near the new Hotel Commonwealth. Potatoes?

Closer to Fenway Park, though, there has been a cavalcade of action all day. This is not a game day, but it almost feels like it, with hundreds, if not thousands of camera-toting Red Sox rooters and their strollers prowling the perimeter of the park. You might even assume there was a game tonight if not for the fact that there is one significant void: scalpers.

Most of the folks (don't you people have jobs?) are not surprisingly donned in Red Sox apparel, and most are apparently in the vicinity for no other purpose than to be near "America's Beloved Ballpark," as the recently hung gigantic banner on Yawkey Way boasts. Happily, the masses are not gathered at some lurid scene like the fallen Twin Towers or a traffic accident, but are instead drawn to baseball's center of the universe. They are kindred spirits, sharing in the jubilation of having witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime sporting event. They could have sat at home today and watched ESPNews broadcast non-stop highlights of the Sox' run to the world championship, or they could wind their way to the Mecca in the Fens, where everybody's in a good mood and just wants to be there. Maybe they'll get lucky, as some did today, to run into one of the conquering heroes like Series MVP Manny Ramirez or game-four winner Derek Lowe, but that kind of random encounter would be bonus material. Just meandering around the park that houses the current world champs is intoxicating enough.

Of course, a lot of folks have flooded the area because they are looking for World Series champion ware and paraphernalia, and one of the most prolific sources is The Souvenir Store on Yawkey Way, directly across the street from the ballpark. On-street hawkers would have had a field day, but unfortunately, they didn't think to show up or don't have the required licenses, leaving The Souvenir Store in a practically monopolistic position in the area. Ever since the Sox began the post-season, the place has been routinely packed, but in recent days it has become completely overrun by Sox fans eager to part with big piles of moolah in return for anything crimson-hose-related. (On Wednesday, prior to the clinching game four in St. Louis, CNN had an interview team in-store asking fans about the effect a championship would have on them individually, as well as the city and region. I know this because I was one of those interviewed, but Lord knows if my inane opinions ever aired.) The store has actually had to set up velvet-rope-type dividers, with separate entrances for those wishing to purchase World Series gear and those who are in the market for "other." The line out the door this afternoon extended down the block and around the corner, almost to Copperfield's Tavern on Brookline Ave., which is a good football field away from the Souvenir Store's front door. The biggest sellers are the black clubhouse caps that the Sox players wore in their Champagne-soaked celebration Wednesday night, and gray world-championship T-shirts.

Meanwhile, also hanging around are the massive TV trucks, which have been stationed there ever since the Sox rallied to beat the Yankees a week ago Sunday. A lot of the trucks seem to be abandoned and in dire need of being towed, but others are there to provide satellite coverage for the local news stations and their on-site reporters, who have been broadcasting seemingly non-stop from the premises.

After Saturday's parade, things in the Fenway will likely begin to return to some normalcy, but on the day after the Red Sox won the World Series, nobody wants to go home. Even an empty Fenway Park nonetheless remains the focal point for local fans, because 12 days ago an eight-game winning streak began within its hallowed walls, and little did anyone know back then to what it would ultimately lead.

Soon Sox management will change the "2004 American League champion" banner on Yawkey Way to "2004 World Series champion," and for the yet-to-believe-it's-true members of Red Sox Nation, that alone will be worth a T token ride into town to see.

In the meantime, Sox fans can't hug their players individually, so on this day they chose to do the next best thing: give a collective and figurative embrace to the ballpark that finally did become the Field of Dreams Come True.

***

When a city's team gets into the playoffs and subsequently the World Series, usually the minimum that a fandom can hope for is that their team does not embarrass itself. The next step up from that is the fervent hope that their team's post-season performance is consistent with what they have put forth for the duration of the season. In other words, fans hope that their team plays in the same manner that it did all season long that got them to this elite point in the first place.

The ideal, though, is for your team to perform above and beyond what one could have anticipated from them - that a level of play is displayed that no one ever could have foreseen based on the months leading up to that point.

For Cardinals fans, absolutely nothing good came from their berth in the just-completed 100th World Series. Did they embarrass themselves? Not really, although any team that gets swept in four straight and doesn't even take a lead in the entire series has to endure some measure of shame. When a team that won 105 games during the regular team - and all summer long established itself as the best team in baseball - good things are expected of it in the post-season. The Redbirds took care of business in the NLDS against the Dodgers, winning three of four and thereby advancing to the NLCS to meet their division mates, the Houston Astros. In a series noteworthy for the fact that the home team won each of the seven games, the Cardinals rallied from a 3-2 deficit in games to take the last two at Busch Stadium to advance to the World Series. Their alleged pitching and hitting prowess were not quite as apparent in the championship series as it had been during the course of the regular season, but they still purportedly were a formidable foe for the lads from Boston when the Fall Classic unfolded last Saturday.

Five days later, and it's already over. St. Louis's starting pitching, well, stunk, and no starter even got to the sixth inning until Wednesday's finale. The staff's ERA for the Series was an unsightly 6.09, but the hitting, remarkably, was even worse. A team that boasted All-Stars at nearly every infield position and included such notables as Larry Walker, Albert Pujols, Edgar Renteria, Jim Edmonds, and Scott Rolen - well, they did next to nothing. As a team the Cards batted .190, with the versatile Rolen going 0-for-15 and the clean-up hitter, Edmonds, collecting but one hit in 15 at-bats (.067) - and that was a bunt.

It had to be difficult for Cardinals fans to fathom how a team who ran away with the ultra-competive NL Central - home of the Astros, Cubs, and Reds - and won the division by a ridiculous 13 games could falter so badly on the baseball world's greatest stage. Who were those imposters?, cried Cardinals fans. These aren't the guys who blasted through the spring and summer and made everyone believe they were on the verge of their first world title in 17 years! Whether it was a choke of the grandest nature or superior scouting, pitching, and execution by the star-crossed opposition is up for debate, but St. Louis looked mighty mortal and soundly disappointed their legions of die-hard fans. If there was any good to come out of the 2004 World Series for Midwestern hardball fans, it was that it was not a slow, torturous death like the one endured by the 2003 Red Sox in the Bronx last October. The whacking the Cardinals took was swift and precise, and as unacceptable as it was for fans of the team, the Redbirds to their dubious credit never gave their backers any reason to hope that things would turn around - at least after Mark Bellhorn's late-game home run in the opener gave the Sox an 11-9 victory. After that night, the Cards were outscored 13-3 in the next three games, and there was little reason for their fans to cheer at any point along the way. Either the Cardinal players that showed up were frauds, or they were decisively beaten by a superior team.

And that's what made things so satisfying for Sox fans.

Starting with the game-four victory over the Yankees that irreversibly turned the tenor of that record-setting ALCS, the Sox have played over their heads. Curt Schilling returned from the surgical gurney to submit two outstanding victories; Pedro Martinez pitched seven scoreless innings in game three to snuff out any glimmering hope that Cards fans harbored about their team coming back from the 0-2 hole; Derek Lowe pitched two of the biggest games of his life, even though exactly a month ago he had given up five runs on eight hits in just two innings - at Tampa Bay; Sox hitters swung and missed fewer than 20 times over the course of the four-game sweep while amassing a solid .283 team batting average; and relievers Mike Timlin, Alan Embree, and Keith Foulke were consistently lights-out in continuing the starters' dominance against the vaunted Cardinal line-up.

In sum, the Red Sox played even better than what folks would have expected them to, and the Cardinals played significantly below expectations, and that was the story - and a quick one it was.

MORE LATER...

Yes, it became the day.

Yes, it was the day -18 years to the day after the Boston Red Sox lost a heartbreaking 8-5 decision in game seven of the 1986 World Series - that the hex was broken and the Red Sox actually won the World Series.

Yes, it was the day that marked the second of three Christmases this year for New England sports fans.

Yes, it was the day that Connecticut sports fans celebrated their fourth championship of the calendar year (Patriots, UConn men's and women's hoops teams, and now, the Sox).

Yes, it was the day that the taunting, the joking, and the snickering ended.

Yes, it was the day that bragging rights began.

Yes, it was the day - a day that mystically ended with a lunar eclipse - that all of the low moments of 1986 were erased by a fellow named Lowe.

Yes, it was the day that guys like DiMaggio, Doerr, Yaz, Pudge, Rooster, Dewey, Remdawg, Val, and Geddy finally looked to the heavens and cried, "Hallelujah!"

Yes, it was the day that Teddy Ballgame, Tony C., Ned Martin, and Ken Coleman looked down from those same heavens and beamed, knowing that the team that they represented so proudly and so long had finally earned itself the ultimate reward.

Yes, it was the day that Pesky, Billy Buck, and Grady Little finally found solace and absolution for their past (perceived) misdeeds.

Yes, it was the day whose outcome left but one cursed franchise in Major League Baseball - one that still supposedly carries one Anthony Nomar Garciaparra on its roster.

Yes, it was the day that a baseball team became the first ever to win eight straight games en route to a world championship.

Yes, it was the day that represented Yankee fans' worst nightmare come true.

Yes, it was the day that marked the first time since 1918 that a Red Sox pennant-winner didn't go the full seven games in the Fall Classic.

Yes, it was the day that the 100th World Series went to an established team (that has not moved or been created via expansion) not named the Yankees for the first time since 1990 (and become only the second in 20 years).

Yes, it was the day that longtime Sox radio voice Joe Castiglione got to make the call that he'd always imagined only in his dreams: "And the Red Sox are World Series Champions!"

Yes, it was the day that "1918" became irrelevant.

Yes, it was the day that you as a baseball fan waited for for all of your life.

Indeed it was.

MORE LATER...

From the Couch

Some went to bars and some gathered on couches; I did the latter. I chose a comfy, safe spot on the couch as opposed to the mob scene everyone predicted downtown Boston would become. Chips, beer, a few good people, and an awesome game made the night complete.

During commercial breaks we ran to the balcony to check up on the lunar eclipse, a magnificent sight that will not appear again until 2007. We split our time between the incredible sight of the Red Sox doing something that hadn't been done in 86 years and something that wouldn't happen again for another three years. Both seemed magical, as the moon glowed orange and the Red Sox swept the Cardinals. The curse had loomed in the air all night as we waited for something to turn. Things had looked glum for us at the start of the American League Championship Series until we turned it around in game four and fought our way all the way to the win.

In the seventh inning, Cardinal fans seemed to still have high hopes. The camera zoomed in on a woman kissing her rings; some in the stands prayed, and one gentleman covered his eyes with the scoop of his hat. Two men smirked to the camera, showing off their baseball hats that bore Babe Ruth's face taped to the front as they held on to the idea of the curse that had kept us from holding the trophy for so long. The thought lingered: "It's not over til it's over," as one man's sign read. You could see the tension in the faces of the Cardinal fans. Could the Sox really do it and in just four games? People said it was going to be tough! But as we watched the Red Sox slaughter the Cardinals game after game of the World Series, we wondered: could it really be this easy? Most expected it to go to the seventh game. No one got too excited at the wins -- too afraid to jinx it. But the Sox did it.

Bottles of champagne appeared from the dark of the fridge and red plastic flutes appeared on the coffee table. As Edgar Renteria grounded out to closer Keith Foulke, the bottle opened with a fizzle. I wish I could say it popped and poured like in the movies, but this is realty. We clanged glasses and did a lap around the room hugging those we knew and those we never knew until the Red Sox came to win. As fireworks popped off in the distance, we drank, loaded up coats and champagne glasses, and ran for the street. On the corner of Washington, in front of the Forest Hills T-stop, cars honked their horns as they drove by. Everyone from the loud college kid to the working guy to the little old Asian lady blared their horns. Even the buses and cabs that rolled out of the bus stop honked. This was surely a day when people blasted their horns in glee, not in angst. People hung flags out the window, screamed, threw up their arms, and hung out of car windows. A girl stopped at the traffic light chanted, "FUCK BABE RUTH!" and threw Baby Ruths from the car. Then she and her cheering squad went into a song and delivered a drunken screaming version of "We Are the Champions," and the car began to hum the same tune. The group of us bundled up on the corner held our champagne glasses high as the cars drove by honking. We felt the victory and for one night, all of New England was united.

-- Melissa Ostrow

Wednesday, October 27

"What is it that you want?"

"What does anybody want? I want the Red Sox to win the World Series."

- Bill Pullman to Nicole Kidman in the film Malice

Back in the fall of 1995, on the eve of the Red Sox' first appearance in the playoffs since 1990, I wrote a story for a special baseball supplement of the Phoenix. It was called, "The Sox as Lovable Winners? What Would Happen If the Sox Won the Series? The Oracles Speak." I won't put you through the entirety of that now-outdated piece, but here are some of the highlights.

"I almost hope that it doesn't happen this year [1995], because this year has been like a season with an asterisk [being a post-strike year]," says Leigh Montville, a former Boston Globe sports columnist who [back in '95 wrote] for Sports Illustrated magazine. However, he wants to see it won reasonably soon. "I really hope to see it in my lifetime; my father was born in 1900 and saw the 1918 championship as a teenager, but he recently passed away and never got to see another one," he says.

"I just think that in some ways a Series win might spoil everything, that they'd become just another team rather than a team constantly in search of the Holy Grail." He believes that the Red Sox, who have lost seventh games of the World Series in 1946, 1967, 1975, and 1986, have had "the literati take hold of them, and the team has become a symbol of frustration."

Dan Shaughnessy, who wrote One Strike Away: A Profile of the Boston Red Sox in 1987 about their overachieving yet ultimately tragic 1986 season [and years later also wrote The Curse of the Bambino], also feels that a world championship "would strip the Red Sox of their identity in these parts."

The Globe sports columnist believes things would never be the same. "There would be a lasting letdown. A lot of fans would lose their incentive to go on rooting for the team. It'll be like, 'Now what do we have to live for? Is that all there is?' "

Shaughnessy points to Philadelphia, which had waited 50 years between world championships when the Phillies won again in 1980. "The fans there had waited so long for a win, and after they won, the Phillies became just another team," he says.

But still . . . if the Boston Red Sox won the World Series?

"The players on this team would be forever immortalized," Shaughnessy predicts. "It'll be a great thing when it happens, particularly for a lot of old folks who have put their hearts into this team."

So how would New Englanders celebrate the first World Series title in 78 [now 86] years?

"You'd have to ask somebody from Minnesota or New York, because I certainly don't know how people would react," says Gene Lavanchy, a [former] sports anchor for WHDH Channel 7. "No one would know what to do."

Lavanchy imagines a Sox title "would blow the roof off the city," he says. "It would be a slow, evolving process. Everyone would be stunned. People would need instructions on how to pop the champagne.

"There would still be some hesitation from fans to make sure that it would really count," he says, "to be certain something wouldn't come down from the commissioner's office saying that it was null and void because they used illegal players or something."

And there could be some pain. "I know one thing," Lavanchy says. "Somebody's going to get hurt; not intentionally, of course. It's just that we haven't been training enough, we're out of shape, and we certainly haven't had enough practice. Injuries could happen."

Bob Lobel, sports anchor at WBZ-TV, foresees "one enormous hit of adrenaline and euphoria, and no more despair." He says that Red Sox Nation would need to concoct a brand-new outlook for their newly-crowned champions. "They just wouldn't be the Red Sox anymore. The karma would be totally different. We'd have to just love them. We couldn't hate them anymore."

And that, he says, could be tough for some fans. "Would you rather have it where things could only get better, or only get worse?"

Sports Illustrated [now Boston Herald] writer Gerry Callahan doesn't buy into the premise that fans' interest would be affected. "The idea that people would lose interest in the team is kind of silly. Ninety-eight percent of Red Sox fans are Red Sox fans and would continue to follow them and buy their tickets to Fenway Park."

Callahan says a championship could weed out the bandwagon-jumpers, though. "It might thin out the herd a little and eliminate the phonies who believe in the Curse. It's a wonderful thing, this folklore, this mythic following of the lovable losers. But one has to separate the myth from the reality."

MORE LATER!

So, is this the day?

Is this the day -18 years to the day after the Boston Red Sox lost a heartbreaking 8-5 decision in game seven of the 1986 World Series - that the hex is broken and the Red Sox actually win the World Series?

Is this the day that marks the second of three Christmases this year for New England sports fans?

Is this the day that Connecticut sports fans celebrate their fourth championship of the calendar year (Patriots, UConn men's and women's hoops teams, and now. . .)?

Is this the day that the taunting, the joking, and the snickering ends?

Is this the day that bragging rights begin?

Is this the day - a day that will mystically end with a lunar eclipse - that all of the low moments of 1986 will be erased by a fellow named Lowe?

Is this the day that guys like DiMaggio, Doerr, Yaz, Pudge, Rooster, Remdawg, Val, and Geddy finally look to the heavens and cry, "Hallelujah!"?

Is this the day that Teddy Ballgame, Tony C., Ned Martin, and Ken Coleman look down from those same heavens and beam, knowing that the team that they represented so proudly and so long has finally earned itself the ultimate reward?

Is this the day that Pesky, Billy Buck, and Grady Little finally find solace and absolution from their past (perceived) misdeeds?

Is this the day whose outcome will leave but one cursed franchise in Major League Baseball - one that still supposedly carries one Anthony Nomar Garciaparra on its roster?

Is this the day that a baseball team will be the first ever to win eight straight games en route to a world championship?

Is this the day that will represent Yankee fans' worst nightmare come true?

Is this the day that will mark the first time since 1918 that a Red Sox pennant-winner didn't go the full seven games in the Fall Classic?

Is this the day that the 100th World Series goes to an established team (that has not moved or been created via expansion) not named the Yankees for the first time since 1990 (and become only the second in 20 years)?

Is this the day that longtime Sox radio voice Joe Castiglione gets to make the call that he's always imagined only in his dreams?

Is this the day that "1918" becomes irrelevant?

Is this the day that you as a baseball fan have been waiting for for all of your life?

More later!

Tuesday, October 26

HBO on Monday night chose not to broadcast its originally-scheduled episode of Taxicab Confessions from 10:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. EST, but instead pre-empted that salacious programming with a re-broadcast of their 2003 sports documentary, The Curse of the Bambino. For our review of that show from last year, click here.

Why the change? And why now? Could it have something to do with the fact that the Red Sox are in the World Series, are up 2-0, and seemingly can do no wrong? Could HBO have decided to take a page from FOX Sports, which chose during game seven of the ALCS against the Yankees to dredge up every single "1918" and curse-related statistic and graphic it could get its pine-tarred batting-gloved hands on? Could it have anything to do with the fact that Monday was the 18th anniversary of game six of the 1986 World Series against the Mets — an episode that takes up the preeminent chunk of time in the HBO doc?

One must admit, though, that if you had seen Curse last year — released just one month prior to the legend-aggravating pennant showdown with the Yanks — you were not nearly as depressed upon watching it a second time. After all, a wild-card berth, a three-game sweep over the AL’s hottest team in the ALDS, the four-game rally against the Pinstripers in the ALCS, and now the two-game lead in the Series make everything about the dark days of Sox history that much more acceptable and distant.

Of course, all of that talk could again be refreshed and readdressed if the Red Sox do not take care of business over the next few days.

* * *

A lot is being made in St. Louis about the supposedly shabby treatment that Tony La Russa’s squad received during its stay in Boston — or should we say, the Boston area. The fans’ catcalls and verbal abuse the team could (reluctantly) handle, but it was its accommodations and transfer difficulties in and out of the ballpark area that were more bothersome. Because of the Head of the Charles rowing regatta held in our fair city over the weekend (which brought an estimated 200,000 visitors to the city), most of the hotels normally available to bigwigs like the Redbirds were otherwise booked, and the team was forced to stay at a hotel in Quincy, which is a far cry from Boston’s Four Seasons, Ritz, or even the Sheraton at the Prudential Center. Players complained not only about the traffic, but also of the fact that it was difficult for them to get a decent meal upon their return to the hotel after the late-night games were complete. Though these players most likely got the traditional post-game spread in the clubhouse and get nearly $100 in per diem money for the purpose of eating, the $83-million Cardinals were disappointed to find waiting for them at the hotel a buffet table of "only" pizza, burgers, hot dogs, and chicken wings — "Bar food," in the words of Cards GM Walt Jocketty. Plus, being 30 miles south of Boston, it was supposedly almost impossible to hail a cab to the park. File under: them’s the breaks. They could have ended up in Providence, like most NFL teams do when they visit the Patriots. And with 14 millionaires on the Cardinals, you’d think that maybe they could have possibly chipped in for a limo and head out for a decent meal.

* * *

So Nomar Garciaparra (38 games) will get a full playoff share for his contributions to the ’04 Sox? Hey, what’s Cesar Crespo (52 games), chopped livah?

* * *

Anybody else get the strange feeling that Cardinals center fielder Jim Edmonds is purposely putting himself into position to make circus catches, rather than just lining up the ball and catching it like a normal outfielder would? Showboat.

* * *

You know things are starting to get a little desperate in St. Louis when local columnists are starting to refer to the opposition as the $127-million Red Sox, and bemoaning the fact that the Hub squad has become "America’s Team," with even Californian Tom Hanks ("I want Billy Buckner to have a good night’s sleep, for cryin’ out loud!") in their corner?

* * *

Actually, I get the feeling that a lot of America is hoping for another chapter of heartbreak being added to the Boston Red Sox’ illustrious history. Other than Yankee fans, it would seem as if most of the country would be backing the title-deprived franchise, but apparently a good number of folks would be more than happy to see the so-called curse continue.

* * *

Classy act: the Patriots during their game against the Jets Sunday saw fit to toast the Sox and show video replays on the big screen of big moments of the hardballers’ post-season. Given the world-champion Pats’ being relatively shunned by the media during the Sox’ run, you’d understand if management chose to ignore their diamond counterparts’ achievements. Instead, they used images of Ortiz, Damon, and Schilling as motivational tools during key moments of New England’s 13-7 win.

* * *

Do you think that Boston Globe sports columnists Dan Shaughnessy, Gordon Edes, and Jackie MacMullan — all having grown up in Massachusetts and ardent Red Sox fans — have already written their championship-recap stories? Lord knows they’ve had enough years to fine-tune these long-delayed pieces. And don’t accuse me of jinxing anything: it’s not me who’s in the process of planning the Red Sox’ title parade already, as the City of Boston apparently is according to Tuesday’s Globe.

* * *

If you were the headline writer of the Globe or Boston Herald, what would your 60-point banner read upon the completion of such a long-awaited event? Personally, I’d put something like WE LIVE TO SEE IT, or IN OUR LIFETIME. Your thoughts?

Christopher Young’s World Series blog will run daily throughout the duration of the World Series, and his Sporting Eye column runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com