It’s all over. (For now.)
Just wait ’til next year: 23-year-old Jon Lester hung on into the sixth inning without allowing any runs, despite giving up three walks, by scattering the three hits and notching three strikeouts.
Just wait ’til next year II: In the 9th, with the Sox only one run ahead, 24-year old Jacoby Ellsbury goes back, back, back to the left field wall—leaps!—and comes down with Jamey Carroll’s looooong fly ball. It was the spread-eagle, banging-into-the-wall catch Ellsbury has been trying (and heretofore failing) to make all season long. (Well, ever since his September call up, anyway.) Can I mention that he started the year in Double-A?
Nice guys finish first: Mike Lowell wins the World Series MVP. Justice is done at last. Can we re-sign him now, please?
Scary guys also finish first: Papelbon’s facial expressions only got more terrifying as the postseason progressed. Soon, he will come with a parental advisory label.
Storylines finish last: The Rockies just looked completely overmatched this entire Series. It would have been a great Cinderella story….except some big, hairy-chested dudes from the Hub had to just come along and rain on their parade.
How can you not love this man?: And Jason Varitek, in his postgame interview, with tears gleaming on his cheeks, says in a quavering voice, “Uh, I’m sorry, um, I’m just a little ha-happy right now.” A wooja wooja woooooo!
How can you not hate this man?: A-Rod finds a way to horn his way in. Have you no decency, sir?
That’s just disturbing: Lonestar singing God Bless America. I really liked Lonestar…before I saw them perform. Seriously, what are country singers doing with the Hansen brothers’ hair?
That’s just deeply satisfying, in a spiritual way: Watching David Ortiz stand on a table and try to spray all of his teammates with champagne at once, while hogging not one, not two, but three commemorative World Series Champions hats (one on head, one in each back pocket).
Only 100 days until the Red Sox equipment truck leaves for Fort Myers!
October 29th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Game notes — Around the time they showed Tito’s recorded interview while the game continued, and something happened — perhaps a hit or an out or a spaceship landing on the field, we don’t know — we finally had enough, put the television on mute and listened to the radio audio feed. The timing was surprisingly synchronized and that dull pain in the back on my head mysteriously eased up.
The ARod announcement was classless, but somehow as predictable as FOX’s crass in game segments, I mean commercials.
For a split second, I thought “Lonestar” was going to be that dude from Space Balls. Seriously, where did the MLB dig up these acts this year? Lonestar? Boys II Men? It’s as if they dug up a time capsule from 1997.
Happy for Lowell, though I think maybe Ellsbury deserved it. It was hard to pick just one guy for MVP so whatever. Question — what is Lowell going to do with Chevy’s crappy cars? Speaking of which, their donation to MLB charities was nice.. but come one, they’ve got deeper pockets than that.
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October 29th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Joe, I hear you on that Tito televised interview thing. What actually happened was way more rare and bizarre than a spaceship landing on the field. Julio Lugo made his second web-gem caliber defensive play in as many games! He *was* saving up all of his defensive ability for the World Series after all!
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October 29th, 2007 at 11:33 am
Joe, Ellsbury (and Papelbon - 3 inning saves!) crossed my mind as well. Checking the stats though, he didn’t do much in the first two games.
This is Lowell in the World Series:
.357AVG .539OBP 1.209OPS
6R 1HR 4RBI 1SB
Lowell came up big in both of the close ones. He scored twice in last night’s game, and had a run and an RBI in Game 2, when the Sox only scored 2 runs.
After looking at that, I am convinced that he earned that award, as opposed to bludgeoned Selig into submission with a twitch of his eyebrows.
Re-sign Lowell! Re-sign Lowell!
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October 29th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Paps crossed my mind as well, and Ellsbury would have been a great story (and there’s no doubt that he provided a spark in the lineup that they sorely needed) but, for a series win that was truly a team win, I think Lowell’s production in this series made him the MVP. Him going first-to-third in Game 3 was the key in that game, and you can even argue it’s a key in the Series, since by winning Game 3, the Red Sox all but crushed the Rockies’ hopes of making a comeback.
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October 29th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Sarah, didn’t Lowell going from first to third happen in Game 2 rather than Game 3?
If anything, that was an even bigger play than you make it sound, because that was the the tying run in what turned out to be a 2-1 game, and he scored on a sac fly, so it wasn’t like he would have scored anyway.
Lowell then doubled in the winning run later on…that game was all Mike Lowell!
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October 29th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Right right, Game 2, sorry. It’s been a blur of winning-winning-winning here in Beantown this past week, and I’m just a little addled. Yeah, that was a huge play.
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