Take that curse and shove it!
2004champs.jpg There will be years to come, no doubt, when the Boston Red Sox will lose when they could have won. There will be playoff games that may not go the way of the Olde Towne Team, miscues that prove costly. There will be reverses, setbacks, losses — that’s baseball. You know what there won’t ...
There will be years to come, no doubt, when the Boston Red Sox will lose when they could have won. There will be playoff games that may not go the way of the Olde Towne Team, miscues that prove costly. There will be reverses, setbacks, losses — that’s baseball. You know what there won’t be?
Any talk about a f***ing curse
. Any expectation that things will go wrong because they always go wrong. Because
THAT’S ALL OVER, BABY!!!
Thank you, 2004 Red Sox — for the rest of my life, I will be able to watch baseball and not fret about how disaster could strike my team. So long to mutterings about medieval concepts like superstition and witchcraft — the Red Sox Nation can now enter the age of the Enlightenment [Bill Simmons of ESPN’s Page 2 has further thoughts on this theme. And Jim Salisbury of the Philadelphia Inquirer has a story on how the Red Sox management used the power of rational analysis to overcome the curse (link via David Pinto, who also has thoughts on this theme)]. The Red Sox didn’t just win — they won with style and bravado:
Coming back 0-3 — against the Yankees; Beating the best team in the American League to win the AL pennant and then beating the best team in the National League to win the World Series; Reeling off eight straight wins — a new post-season record; Never trailing during the World Series; Getting clutch two-out hit after clutch two-out hit — to quote Simmons, “Has there ever been a World Series team that juggled more heroes from game to game?” Starting pitchers not giving up an earned run the last three games — and rock-solid relief pitching.
Congratulations to the ownership group (Steve Kettman was right!), GM Theo Epstein, manager Terry Francona, and the whole roster. The Boston Red Sox are the 2004 World Champions of Major League Baseball!
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and the author of The Ideas Industry. Twitter: @dandrezner
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