Selective amnesia hit the minds of baseball and media pundits this week -- the very same pundits that criticized the Bombers all year long about the thin pitching staff, the lack of a matchup lefty from the bullpen, the burned out late innings fire crew, oh yeah, and the inconsistent offense --
Well, there's a funny thing about baseball -- there are the baseball gods, and ultimately the game doesn't lie -- you can do the equivalent of winning with mirrors all year, but IN THE END -- the game will catch up with you
And contrary to the graphics on Fox (can't they get anything right?) -- this was NOT one of the greatest upsets of all time -- it's hard to call a 35-35 series over the past three years, leading up to G7 -- YANKEE DOMINANCE
Give Boston the credit for staying the course and edging out the Yankees 4-3 -- Baseball is a funny game that way -- the best teams often only win 3 of 5 games no matter what the quality of competition is -- for Boston to win four straight, that is truly outstanding -- just as the Yanks winning the first three --
All it points to is that now 36-35 record between the teams -- play it again, and who knows who wins -- but for this year, the Red Sox broke through, they deserve the credit -- If the focus remains on how the Yankees collapsed, it implies that the Bosox either didn't deserve to win or somehow got an assist from the Yankees, and nothing is farther from the truth
Here is what is surprising about this year for this Yankee fan, the Interlocking NY won 101 games -- that's second best in baseball -- they won their 7th consecutive division -- no one on the pitching staff won more than 15 games -- they came FROM BEHIND to win 61 games -- and no one named Wells, Pettite, or Clemens pitched for this team
Although they took out the Twins 3-1 like last year, it was hardly a dominant performance -- but it was a demonstration that the Yanks knew how to win in the postseason --
After taking a 3-0 lead on the Sawx, it looked for all the world that it was enough for the Yanks to know how to win in the postseason --
In the end, the inconsistency that the Yanks showed all season long came back to haunt them -- and Boston finally played to the form that they were showing flashes of at various points in the season
On paper the Red Sox were the better team -- in the end, for 4 nights out of 7, on the field they were the better team -- that's why the WS will be in Fenway for the first time in 18 years
As much as people like to talk about mysticism and curses, the better team won the ALCS this year -- it took them a while to right the GD ship, but they did it -- more power to them
I notice that there is HEAVY emphasis placed by the Sawx fans, management, and team on beating the Yankees -- however, that certainly is not what 1918 is all about -- 1918 is about winning the World Series --
As an Interlocking NY fan, that has been my greatest disappointment of the past four years and two WS appearances -- NO TITLES -- the playoffs are about winning titles, not defeating rivals --
Time will tell whether what happened to the 2003 NYY, which played absolutely FLAT and lost to the Marlins after a grind it out series with the Sawx will happen this time to the Sawx
So was all the chi spent with the victory over NY?
I have this odd suspicion in my gut that it was --
Honestly, I can't give you any rational reasons why the Bosox can't win it all -- the offense is awesome -- they have two top shelf starters, and two starters that have played solid -- the bullpen is coming together at the right time -- and thanks to Uncle Bud S., they have potentially FOUR games at Fenway because the A.L. All-Stars won the All-Star Game
In the final analysis, I think the Bosox just won their "WS" -- that's unfortunate because those NLCS teams look hungry as hell to take home the big trophy, the title, the WS ring -- and that's what it's all about -- we shall see ...
