The Boston Red Sox complete the worst-to-first transformation, winning their third World Series in ten years, clinching at home for the first time since 1918.
I just hope my fellow Sox fans celebrate respectfully and peacefully. But tonight, Boston, celebrate ye shall.
Kazzy
One man. Two boys. Twelve kids.
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Ortiz was amazing in the series.Report
What, you’d call a 1.948 OPS amazing? In 2002, Bonds was 1.994.Report
I just looked at Bonds stats from that series. Those are pretty damn amazing as well.Report
Funny, I don’t recall him getting a ring out of that performance.Report
Awesome. Special.Report
And then are those guys gonna shave?Report
Do let us pray they do.Report
They’re like the Patriots of baseball.Report
They’re like the Yankees of Boston.Report
Wins everything.Report
Yah, heard this on the way to work this am. World Series? Aren’t we in football season now? I thought the Series ended in like, summer?
MehReport
Wow.Report
Well this is what? Their third WS titles in the last decade?
Hell I mean since 2000 Boston’s had more titles than the Yankees. I think we can officially hate on them now as being the the baseball version of I dunno, the Sassanid Empire or something. Maybe the Carolingians (Sweeeeet Caroline-gians?)Report
Of the last 10:
Red Sox 3
Giants 2
Cardinals 2
White Sox, Phillies, Yankees 1
The losers were a bit more varied
Rangers 2
Tigers 2
Cardinals 2
Astros, Rockies, Rays, Phillies 1
Yes, the Cards have won 4 of the past 10 NL pennants.Report
Everyone should hate the Cardinals of course. That’s just common sense.Report
They did employ Tony LaRussa for most of that time, which makes hate an unreasonably mild reaction.Report
People could absolutely hate on them as not-even-really-Davids-turned-true-Goliaths ever since 2007, no doubt. At the same time, there’s still every reason for Sox fans to really get a kick out of clinching at Fenway for the first time in 95 years. The airwaves were filled with suggestions today that these things are completely inconsistent. (Not the issue you raised, Nob, I realize). Would all these people really be so indifferent to seeing a gap like that – or even no gap but just the choice – of having such a defining moment happen in their own team’s venerable home stadium?
All this, “The Red Sox have won a lot, so all this business about clinching at Fenway is ridiculous and we shouldn’t have to hear about it!” is utter bunk. It would mean a lot for every single commenter saying this if their team were able to get the same thing done for them, even after winning a couple titles for the first time in basically a century. People who truly believe otherwise (like Dan Patrick) are soulless cynics who have forgotten what it is to be a sports fan (in the sense of having skin in the game as a fan of team).
/rantReport
…The honest way to express this indifference about the Fenway thing if it’s a result of the Sox no longer being underdogs would just be to say that, for whatever reason, you’d bought into the idea that the Sox’s hard luck story should make them more likable to you, but that now that that’s off the table, you just don’t give a fig what the team or its fans do or don’t feel about its exploits. That’s totally fair. But it doesn’t get you to where you are able to say there’s no reason anyone who’s a fan or for whatever reason continues to enjoy seeing the Sox win should think or in any case say that winning at Fenway isn’t a big deal. Cold indifference doesn’t get to pretend to be that precisely targeted.Report
Dude, I’m a Cubs fan. The Red Sox fans to me have always struck me as pampered rich kids who were upset the kid next to them had $200 shoes instead of their $150 ones.Report
As a lifelong Red Sox fan and one-time resident of Boston, I will say that what encapsulated the franchise and its true fan base for so long was less about the Yankees and more about the team’s supposed curse. It was less a sense of unfairness and more a sense of utter defeatism. Sure, there were times in the late 90’s and early 00’s when we might have complained about the Yankees massive payroll, but that was just the cause du jour. Most real fans knew we were among the ‘haves’ (even if our rival down the road was a ‘super have’) and came up short regardless.Report
Nob, absolutely. As I say, by the time 2007 was over I was absolutely on board with people being as hostile to the Sox as they always were to the Yanks for the exact same reasons. But that just means they’re hostile (or indifferent) in general, which means these reactions to people thinking winning at Fenway is a big deal are just falsely targeted ire. If the shoe were on the other foot and it was their team, they’d absolutely care about a win at home, even after two sweeps that resulted in the winning game being on the road. How cool would it be to be sitting at the Cubby Bear while the Cubs were winning their third World Series in a decade down the block, but their first one in a century where the win occurred at Wrigley? Really f-ing cool, I’m gonna say – something to make a pretty big deal about, even though would still be a vastly smaller deal than the Series that actually broke the drought.
Go Brewers, by the way.Report
I started rooting for the Sox during that late-90s period, not so much out of Yankees/payroll hate either (though that was part of, the payroll thing to my discredit – I plead youth), but because those ALCSs were just so incredibly compelling to a baseball fan in a place where the team was pretty much a perennial loser (Go Brewers!). In retrospect, it was largely Rivera that made them so compelling, which made the recent Sox/Mo roast/party occasion a lot of fun to read about. It was just so exciting to watch this very good but still ordinary team try to do something great (beat the glamourous, dominant, seemingly perennial champions), but, in each game, have to get past this one insurmountable obstacle, and never seem to be able to do it. It just made all the sense in the world to pick a side and get involved in that spectacle, and I found those Boston teams to be very easy to root for against, especially, the seemingly immovable object called Mariano Rivera. From there, I just went ahead and made them my official ‘second team,’ (and my American League allegiance). The best thing about this year’s Red Sox is that they remind me far more of those ’90s teams than did the ’04 or ’07 teams.
I’m not sure if that semi-pedigree makes me a complete Johnny-come-lately to Sox fandom, or just pretty much of one. But neither do I really care.
Man, I love baseball.Report
The Giants haven’t won a Series at home since 1922 (when both home and away were in New York.) I truly don’t think winning it at home could have made 2010 and 2012 any more amazing than they already were.Report
And for Sox fans, the meaning of 2004 itself vastly outweighed any consideration of it not happening at Fenway as well. 2007 as well, I’d think. 2013, they’re thinking it’s pretty nice for it to happen at Fenway. Makes sense to me, is all I’m saying.
I’m not sure there’s the connection from city–>ballpark–>team (emphasis on thru the ballpark) for a lot of other places like there is for Boston–>Fenway–>Sox. Probably changing cities along the way would break down the importance of place to a team’s championship to an extent. But yeah, I’m sure there are cases where shoe might not be on the other foot so much.
Still, if that’s how people in Boston feel about it, what’s the issue? If there’s indifference or hostility to how Boston feels about their team, that’s a general thing stemming from being the New Yankeesor whatev. It’s not like people are being asked to set aside those inclinations and make an exception because of the Fenway thing; this is just how Boston folks feel about it (I’ve gathered). If one already didn’t care how they felt about the Red Sox (a surpassingly reasonable attitude to have), then that’s irrelevant; if one’s happy for Sox fans, why not be happy that that aspect of it makes it more special for them this time around? I just don’t get the particular hostility I’ve seen to the idea that it would matter to them. You probably had to hear the particular sports talk segments I’m referring to to have any clue what the hell I’m ranting about, tbh.Report