The Closah welcomes the Captain to the Mound Party celebrating our Sox trip to the '07 World Series!
The Closah celebrates CoCo's magnificent catch in the triangle that sealed the deal and punched the Red Sox ticket to the 2007 World Series!
Boston Glob Front Page - October 22, 2007!
Big Papi hold the American league Championship Award high at Fenway Park on October 121. The Red Sox completed yet another ALCS Historic come-back. They defeated the Indians three in a row to win the Pennant. Cleveland Flopped and only could muster 5 runs in that span. Their pitching caved in as the Sox smacked 'em 11-2 last night. The game was tight until Rookie of The year - Dustin Pedroia smacked a 3 run homer into the monster seats and the Sox tacked on more in the 8th for the big win.
Members of the 2007 Boston Red Sox tear it up on the mound after they eliminated the Cleveland Indians at Fenway Park on Sunday night. The Sox won the American League Pennant by posting the best record in baseball. They ousted an Indian team that led 3-1 in games until a Game 5 resurgence by the Sox. The Sox outscored the Tribe 30-5 in the last 3 games of the ALCS to advance to the World Series.
Sox’ Past Failures Forgotten
By Tony MassarottiMonday, October 22, 2007
Boston Herald Sports ColumnistSports columnist Tony Massarotti has been a must-read for years in the pages of the Boston Herald.
Gone forever are the Red Sox [team stats] of yesterday. In Boston, during the baseball season, there is now only an endless succession of tomorrows.
Once seen as a tortured and most tragic franchise, the Red Sox are now American League champions for the second time in four years following an 11-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians last night in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series. Three years after the 2004 Red Sox permanently altered the fate and direction of the franchise, let the record show that these Sox were buoyed by a youth that seems entirely unencumbered by the weight of Red Sox pasts.
With the Sox, from now on, there is no looking back. The World Series begins Wednesday against Colorado.
“Fractured is probably the best way to describe it,” Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling [stats] said amid a clubhouse celebration when asked about the image of the franchise he joined following a fittingly heartbreaking end to the 2003 season. “From the clubhouse to the front office, there was that whole 25 players, 25 cabs thing, but when I came here, I knew right away that it was different.”
Ah, but if only that was where it ended. The Red Sox were fractured, all right. They were also spectacular failures, the team that always missed by thismuch. The Sox of old made critical blunders and paid for them dearly, and were reminded, year after year after year, that they had made unforgettable, unforgivable mistakes.
Not now. Not anymore. Now, when the Red Sox trail by a 3-1 series score, as they did against these Indians, people cite 2004 instead of 1986 or ’78 or ’67 or ’46. The Red Sox celebrate their heroes instead of vilifying their goats, and the good things are anticipated more.
“I do think that in games of huge magnitude, our guys don’t get overwhelmed,” said Sox manager Terry Francona, now 18-9 in his postseason career. “It doesn’t assure that you’re going to win, but it is a good feeling. You look out there and you see Jason Varitek [stats] behind the plate, guys like (Josh) Beckett and Schilling, they do what they’re supposed to do.”
But what about the kids? How to explain that? Last night, entering the bottom of the seventh inning, the Sox held a dwindling 3-2 advantage. Rookie ignitor Jacoby Ellsbury reached on an error and rookie Dustin Pedroia [stats] ripped a two-run home run into the left field seats, and the Sox had a bulging 5-2 advantage on their way to a runaway win.
Prior to Pedroia’s homer, the Sox received five innings from rookie starter Daisuke Matsuzaka and two pivotal innings from rookie setup man Hideki Okajima [stats]. All throughout the night, it was as if the youngest and newest members of the Red Sox operated freely, without the pressure of expectation, without the burden of the past.
But then, think about it: Why should Pedroia care at all about 2003? Why should Matsuzaka care about 1948? Why should Ellsbury care about ’75 or Okajima about ’86, when, to them, the Sox are a team of here and now?
Of course, the list goes on. Jonathan Papelbon [stats] made his major league debut at Fenway Park [map] in 2005 when the Sox were reigning world champions. Beckett arrived in 2006, traded from one World Series winner (the 2003 Florida Marlins) to another. First baseman Kevin Youkilis [stats] was raised and nurtured in a Boston organization that has made four postseason trips in five years, so why wouldn’t he bat a sterling .500 in his first league championship series as a starter?
Children, after all, are products of the environment they are raised in. Teach them to win, they will win. Teach them fear, self-doubt and trepidation, and they will learn those things, too.
And so now the Red Sox are going back to the World Series following a regular season in which they finished with the best record in baseball and won their first AL East division title since 1995. Their trip effectively was sealed when the young, spunky Pedroia circled the bases after his eighth-inning homer that drew a standing ovation from an electrified, sellout crowd.
And then, zipping across home plate like a human windup toy, the young, spry Pedroia jumped into the arms of a beaming, waiting David Ortiz [stats].
Amid the cheers at time-dipped Fenway Park, it was as if the tradition were being passed on, like a father embracing his son.
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