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A Different Kind Of Scary: Red Sox Are The Yankees

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 25, 2007

BOSTON - We searched Fenway Park. We covered every inch of Boston Common. We asked Manny Ramirez to remove his do-rag. We peeked inside the Green Monster. We climbed Bunker Hill. We ran circles around Harvard Square. We looked under every dropped 'R' in New England.

The Curse is gone.

It's been like that a while, since those Idiots went and wiped out the Yankees and Cardinals in 2004. Still, it was a strange sensation to come to a World Series in Boston with no one talking about ghosts.

1918 is so over.

It ain't you, Babe.

No, no, no, it ain't you Babe.

It ain't the Rockies, either.

No one in the media has visited the Bambino's grave this time. They're just watching the Sox plant everybody else.

This thing isn't over, but they're still dusting Cinderella for fingerprints this morning.

If it was a softball game, it would have been called after five innings.

Globetrotters Vs. Generals

If it was a basketball game, the Red Sox would have been the Globetrotters and the Rockies would have been the Generals.

The final score was 13-does it matter?

The World Series began and the air was thin and we weren't even in Colorado. The mood isn't as heavy in Beantown. You can see it in the faces of those fans.

'They don't fear the worst anymore,' Boston catcher Doug Mirabelli said the day before the Series.

It's so not scary that scary writer and Red Sox fan Stephen King was seen flipping through Newsweek during Wednesday's laugher.

The Red Sox once chased the Yankees.

Now they are the Yankees.

Just ask the Rockies.

They hadn't lost in nearly a month. These darlings had won 21 of their last 22 games and swept through the National League playoffs. Their run to glory has been magical and near mythical.

They played the varsity Wednesday.

These Red Sox have cocky Cy Young winner in waiting Josh Beckett, who struck out the first four Rockies he faced and five of the first six, all on fastballs, informing Colorado that it wasn't in Kansas anymore.

These Red Sox have cocky leadoff midget rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who swung like he was 6-foot-4 and popped one over the Green Monster in his first Series at-bat in the first inning.

It was just the start. The Red Sox didn't stop until they'd scored more runs than any team ever had in a Series Game 1. Pedroia, Manny, Papi Ortiz and Jason Varitek and J.D. Drew drove in two runs. By the way, if there's any Boston player out there who didn't hit a double Wednesday, please raise your hand and we'll get to you.

There are only eight leftovers from those curse-busting 2004 world champions. This is a different kind of year.

You see, they're the giants this time.

The Yankees don't even have a manager.

The Red Sox have a monolith.

Beckett On A Roll

Maybe the long rest hurt the Rockies. They hadn't played in eight days.

Now it's nine.

Beckett gave up six hits and a run in seven innings. The dead-eyed righty is on a god-like roll this postseason, conjuring images of Koufax '63 and Gibson '67 with a 4-0 record, 1.20 ERA (it actually went up Wednesday) and 38 strikeouts in 30 innings.

Throw in the offense that hung 30 runs on Cleveland in the final three ALCS games. Make it 43-6 in the last four games.

The Red Sox had made a particular point of battering staff aces en route to this Series, like Anaheim's John Lackey and Indians C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona. Rockies ace and Game 1 starter Jeff Francis lasted four innings, long enough for 10 hits and six earned runs.

Understand, Colorado's staff allowed all of 15 earned runs in sweeping its seven postseason games. Among the highlights in a seven-run Boston fifth was reliever Franklin Morales (two-thirds of an inning, six hits, seven earned runs, one balk) and iceman Ryan Speier (three batters, three walks, three runs forced in).

Don't count the Rockies out, but start counting at least. Colorado had won 10 consecutive games before the Series. Now it has lost one consecutive game. Now it has met the Red Sox in a new kind of Red Sox October. No one fears the worst anymore. It's a different kind of scary in Boston.

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