11/05/24
October 22, 2007
For The Love of Sport: The Fall Classic : A brief look at the Series ahead and some favorite memories of World Series past.
I know that normally I have made this a Saturday column but I figured I could make an exception for the World Series. I actually could have written the article for Saturday morning but it would have been a largely useless analysis of an Indians versus Rockies series that never quite materialized. Somewhere Eric Wedge is still waiting for that fourth win but he has a young and talented team and they’ll be back. The Major League Baseball season is a marathon not a sprint. The baseball calendar consists of four months of off-season maneuvering, followed by a month of spring training, followed by a six month 162-game behemoth of a regular season and then a month of playoffs. All of it leading to this event, every boy’s backyard dream, the most perfect stage in sports, this is the World Series. The Colorado Rockies earned their first trip to the World Series in their fifteenth year of existence by sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks 4 games to 0. The Red Sox, however, captured their 12th American League Pennant after a hard fought battle that went seven games with the Indians. The Red Sox then known as the Americans played in the first World Series played in 1903. They beat the heavily favored Pirates 5 games to 3. The 1904 NL champion NY Giants were so concerned about the potential for embarrassment that they refused to play against the repeat champion Boston Americans. It wasn’t until 1905 that the two leagues could smooth out their differences and formalize the event settling on the best of seven format that we use today instead of the best of nine used in that first series (the series from 1919-1921 also used the best-of-nine format). The World Series has had heroes and goats, villains and scandals. Either from watching a game live, or on TV, reading an article or a history book for that matter we all have a World Series moment. When Joe Carter hit the walk-off homerun to end the 1993 series it seemed like the greatest series moment ever, but Bill Mazeroski had done the exact same thing to end the 1960 series. Then there was the 1975 series (certainly one of, if not the greatest ever) with Carlton Fisk waiving the ball fair in the 12th inning of game 6 to force a game 7, where Sox fans were once again left broken-hearted. Any Yankees fan worth his salt would have to make a case for Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 series. Larsen hadn’t gotten out of the 2nd inning in game 2 (a 13-8 Yankees loss) but when Casey Stengel called on Larsen to start in game five of a series tied at two games apiece Larsen provided a literally perfect performance. If I had to pick one series above all others for me it would have to be 2004 but for no other reason than that the Sox are my team. I actually saw written somewhere that it was the worst series ever, and after the initial shock wore off I realized that for anyone but a Sox fan it was kind of lousy. Boston jumped out to a 7-2 lead by the end of the third inning in the first game and held on for an 11-9 win, in the final three games of the sweep St. Louis scored just three runs. Outside of a fans rooting interest I have always loved the story of the 1919 Black Sox. A team that got their moniker because their owner was so cheap that he tried to charge the players to launder their uniforms (they refused the service hence the name). After Joe Jackson took the money he went on to play error free-ball, batted .375 and hit the only homerun for either team in the series. Will the Red Sox bring the team that unloaded on the Indians 30-5 over the last three games of the ALCS or will they show up with the team that allowed almost 7 runs per game on their way to a 3-1 series deficit in the ALCS? To use a line that should have been said by Yogi Berra, the Sox are a pretty good team when they’re playing well. That is to say they have had a solid bullpen, reliable starters and a great lineup from top to bottom. They also spent a solid two months in August and September trying to undo four months of great baseball. Perhaps the Red Sox should remind themselves now that they don’t play these games on paper. It’s a series that as usual is full of questions and the answers are usually not exactly the ones that you would expect. Who will be the hero and while that man becomes a hero who from the other team will let a legion of fans down? It is pretty hard to argue with the Rockies chances but the odds makers apparently have the Red Sox as 2-1 favorites. Perhaps the odds makers have short enough memories that they forgot that these Rockies have won 21 of their last 22 games. Are the Rockies still the hottest team ever to hit the playoffs or will eight straight days off and one freak snowstorm cool their fire? So where will this series stack up? There isn’t any sense in telling you who I am rooting for but just remember who I am cheering for shouldn’t be mistaken for a prediction. You won’t get any predictions out of me (I am very superstitious about messing with my teams especially after I picked the Patriots to win the 1986 Superbowl). You can always reach me via email at kyrilmitch_76@yahoo.com with questions and comments.
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