Thursday, October 28, 2004

Thirty-one thousand, four hundred and fifty-eight days passed without a Red Sox championship after Boston won the 1918 World Series. But the 31,459th day -- well, that turned out much, much differently.

Free of 86 years of despair and disappointment, haunted by names like Buckner and Bucky and Boone, Red Sox fans may not know quite how to react, now that they are the patrons of World Series champions. But the Red Sox players were not so conflicted tonight, as they closed out a 3-0 victory in Game 4 of the World Series and a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Red Sox never trailed in this series, becoming only the fourth team in major-league history to win a World Series in that manner (the '63 Dodgers, '66 Orioles, '89 Athletics), and that reflected their absolute domination of this series. They shut down the powerful St. Louis offense, outscoring the Cardinals 24-12, and when the Red Sox batted, their hitters controlled the strike zone, dictated the ball-strike counts. The St. Louis pitchers would throw 679 pitches in this series, and of those, the Red Sox swung and missed only 37 times; the Cardinals' starting pitchers produced only 17 missed swings in 369 pitches.

These words must be repeated slowly, to be believed: The Boston Red Sox are champions.