I try not to write too much about the Sox, especially in the playoffs because I am superstitious and don't want to jinx them. I liked this team a lot this year. Winning is great but much like the '04 team it was fun to root for this group. They played hard, they seemed to enjoy being out there, and they were perpetual under dogs. The beard thing was fun and guys like Gomes just killing themselves on every play was refreshing after a couple years of assholes like Carl Whiny Crawford, and Adrian Backstabber Gonzalez. Shoot, even John Lackey, who I have never liked, came across as a fighter and someone you could almost get behind. Throw in some aggressive Koji Uehara high fives and you have something special! So kudos fellas on making it fun to be a Sox fan.
Couple side notes. Even though a ticket to the World Series in Fenway cost $1937549874.00... the games rarely sold out this year which is unusual. Thanks Bobby Valentine. Has there ever been a team who got less respect wire to wire than the 2013 Sox? They led the American League and all of baseball for much of the season yet made it to the top of various power rankings maybe 4 times through out the season. They plowed through a stacked Tampa Bay pitching staff after getting very little chance of winning the series. Then they did it to an even tougher Detroit staff who was supposed to have a good batting lineup as well. And against St. Louis? Even up 3-2 everyone who wrote or talked about sports for a living discounted their chances and sucked up on Wacha and the Cardinal "way". The Cardinal way? It is through Logan airport direct to St. Louis and then onto a beach in Palm Springs. No parade attached. And the unhittable Wacha? The Sox saw him once and the second time they lit him for 6 runs. And that was after he walked Ortiz every time he came to bat. I was going to tear apart the naysayer experts (often Yankee homers) like Joe Lemire, Jerry Crasnick, and Jim Caple, or even all time uber d-bag Dan Shaughnessy... but let's be positive and give it up for the good guys who saw the light. Of course our own Gordon Edes and Jackie MacMullan, but how about Tom Verducci, the only guy at CNNSI to get it right?! I will even give a little credit to notorious Yankee homers Dave Schoenfield (late but eventually) and John Heyman who finally came around to the truth by the St. Louis series (although Heyman took a few unsolicited steroids shots, never one to actually give up gracefully). Here are the ESPN experts, a little more evenly laid out. http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/9864637/espn-expert-predictions
At the end of the day, the team w/ the better lineup, better depth, best starter (Lester), and best bullpen won.
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