edward - what about "bambino ROOLZ!!!"

congratulations red sox fans!!!

My Oh My as Dave Niehaus would say it. What a fantastic series. Congratulations! Thank you for the glorious post season memories.

It's all about my Mariner's next season.

Until when....

It does occur to me that an entire cottage industry related to "The Curse" has just gone down the tubes. What are the new totems gonna say? ;)

Congratulations to the Red Sox (hard as it is for me to say.)
Now: No more baseball until February. So cold. . .so cold

Here's my question, as a lifelong BoSox fan who's not yet out of the habit of complaining (our birthright, we earned it with tears) ...

Why does the Sox's World Series gear have to be so goshdarned UGLY? I want to buy something to commemorate this, but jeesus, the MLB stuff is grotesque.

I think I'll stick with my Carlton Fisk away jersey for now.

Re: Ex-Phillies Schilling, Francona, Mabry, Rolen

If certain ex-Phillies had to win and others lose, I am really glad it was Schilling and Francona who won, and the petulant, self-absorbed Rolen who got to lose. Schilling, who studies Patton and samurai warriors and military history in his spare time, led the Red Sox as if they were on a death march to Bataan, or better yet, like Patton's 3d Army on its way to Bastogne. He showed leadership, courage, fortitude and team spirit. Francona, a nice guy, pushed all the right buttons, and given a second chance to manage again, made the very most of it. He may have been unfairly run out of town in Philly largely because Rolen refused to play hard enough for him.

By contrast, Rolen, who put up huge numbers in the regular season, faced with his first post-season, frankly came up empty. No hits, few walks. Just defense. And he was batting cleanup, folks. He was a huge part of the collapse of the Cardinals. he was exposed as a hitter who couldn't hit good pitchers. Unlike Mike Schmidt, to whom Rolen is often fallaciously compared, Rolen can't hit the fastballs of the great ones like Schilling & Martinez; whereas Schmidt in the 1980 playoffs & World Series routinely got hits off great pitchers like Nolan Ryan, Paul Splittorff, Dan Quisenberry and the like. Schmidt came up huge in the 1980 World Series and I believe was Series MVP in his first every Series.

Rolen was petulant and self-absorbed and demanded a trade to the Cardinals, where he was in "baseball heaven". Schilling by contrast, said in the off-season he would have loved to come back to Philly, but when it was Boston who traded for him, he said he's work to "reverse the curse" and after they won, he said "this is what we set out to do at the start of the year." A real team guy. All he did was lead the majors in wins, strikeouts, and in the playoffs and world series, guts and glory and teamwork.

And John Mabry? A throwin on a trade, what was he doing playing in Game 4? What was LaRussa thinking?

Mabry never cracked a starting lineup in Philly in the regular season. LaRussa started him in a Series game?????

Huh???

--AJK