With World Series victory, both Red Sox and city of Boston earn their baseball party
All those empty Octobers since Babe Ruth left for New York. All those empty Octobers since 1918. All season long, they made a city wounded by the Boston Marathon bombings cheer a team trying to go from last place to the top of the world.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
PUBLISHED: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2013, 2:18 AM
UPDATED: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2013, 8:01 AM
DAVID J. PHILLIP/AP
The Red Sox clinch a World Series in Boston for the first time since 1918.
BOSTON — They had done everything else over the past 10 seasons, taken out the Yankees and then won their first World Series since 1918 in St. Louis and then won another one three years later in Colorado. The Red Sox had done everything except win a World Series at Fenway Park in all the years since 1918. Like there was one more monster to slay. Just not the Green Monster.
Now they had done that at old Fenway late Wednesday night, done that with “B Strong” for “Boston Strong” carved into the outfield grass as if really carved into the heart of this city. We saw one kind of ending in Boston, at the finish line of the Marathon in April. This was different, this kind of loud, happy ending, at the end of October at Fenway Park.
“Our players understand their place in this city,” John Farrell, the manager who did such a spectacular job this season, said when it was over, when Wednesday night had become Thursday morning at Fenway.
GREG M. COOPER/USA TODAY SPORTS
Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Koji Uehara (l.) reacts with catcher David Ross (r.) after defeating the St. Louis Cardinals.
Koji Uehara, who across the baseball summer and into this remarkable baseball October had made Red Sox fans know what it was always like for Yankee fans in the old days when nobody could hit the great Mariano Rivera in October, threw one last unhittable pitch, and Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals swung and missed, and now “1918,” for the last time in this place and in this city, was not a curse, but part of a wild baseball party.
The Red Sox had done it here, at one of the magic places of American sports, between Boylston and Brookline Ave., hard off Yawkey Way. Three World Series now for them since they came back on the Yankees with those four straight in ’04. Two other Game 7 losses in the ALCS going back to 2003. The Yankees still own the past in baseball. The present belongs to the Red Sox.
JARED WICKERHAM/GETTY IMAGES
Young fans carry a flag on the field after the Boston Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1 in Game Six of the 2013 World Series.
All those empty Octobers since Babe Ruth left for New York. All those empty Octobers since 1918. All season long, they made a city wounded by the Boston Marathon bombings cheer a team trying to go from last place to the top of the world. Now they had done it in Game 6 against the Cardinals, beaten them 6-1.
We had seen a lot in Boston over the last decade, so often seen greatness of David (Papi) Ortiz, voted the MVP of this World Series for being on base 19 out of 25 times and hitting .688. Now we even saw fireworks in the sky above Fenway Park.
GREG M. COOPER/USA TODAY SPORTS
The celebration is on for World Series MVP David Ortiz (r.) and the Red Sox.
“Boston Strong!” Shane Victorino, one of the heroes of the night, the batting hero of Game 6 of the World Series the way he had been the grand slam hero of Game 6 of the ALCS against the Tigers, yelled when it was over. And the crowd roared again. They fell to 93 losses and last place a year ago and after what had been such an amazing baseball time in Boston since John Henry and Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino, the smartest guys in the game, came crashing down on all of them. And their sellout streak ended and it was worse than that. People had come to start hating the Red Sox in Boston.
Only then their general manager, Ben Cherington, who just had as good a year as any general manager has ever had in baseball, went out and changed the talent and changed the character and changed the personality of the Red Sox. In a year. With Victorino and Mike Napoli and Jonny Gomes. Guys like that.
JOHN G. MABANGLO/EPA
Red Sox GM Ben Cherington (l.) and manager John Farrell admire the World Series trophy.
And when two closers went down, it was as if the 38-year-old Uehara — has there ever been a more unlikely pitching hero than this — fell off the Green Monster and into their laps.
“I was just happy to be along for the ride,” Cherington said on the stage when the World Series trophy had been presented.
It was a bit more than that for Cherington in Boston, who had a season that was like Ortiz’s October. Everything Farrell did seemed to work out right, all the way to Thursday night when he dropped Victorino to No. 6 in the batting order and then watched him clear the bases with a double off the Monster that made it 3-0, Boston, off the St. Louis kid, Michael Wacha, who until that moment thought this baseball October was supposed to be all about him.
CHARLIE RIEDEL/AP
Boston Red Sox fans celebrate in the streets after the game.
Then it was 6-0 for the Red Sox, and they were counting down to when Uehara would come out of the bullpen to back John Lackey, who remembered on this night what it was like to pitch this kind of game when he was a kid for the Angels and started and won Game 7 of the 2002 World Series.
Lackey finally left with the bases loaded in the seventh. Junichi Tazawa in for the Red Sox. He threw Allen Craig two pitches.
Craig banged the second one right at Napoli at first and that was the end of the inning and the end of the Cardinals in this World Series.
“The depth of this roster,” Farrell said, “showed itself time and time again.”
So it seemed that every single member of Farrell’s team did something in this Series. Stephen Drew, who couldn’t have hit the water in the Public Garden if he fell out of a swan boat, hit a home run off Wacha in Game 6. And Victorino hit that grand slam against the Tigers in Game 6 of the ALCS. And maybe Ortiz changed everything when he hit that grand slam against the Tigers in Game 2, when the Red Sox were facing an 0-2 hole and going back to Detroit to face Justin Verlander.
Finally it was the top of the ninth. Uehara was getting the Rivera out, last out of the Series, and it was over. Boston Red Sox, strong to the end. They had done everything else. Now they lit the Boston night with fireworks above Fenway. Finally they had won here.
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