Congratulations Sox!
 

Great headline on Boston.com

AT LAST!

Pigs can fly, hell is frozen, the slipper finally fits,
and Impossible Dreams really can come true.

we're still 25 up on em, i guess we gotta let them win once every 86 years

nice math brokeagin, you might want to go back and check the historical record on that one.

the fact is, it doesnt matter how many rings you have overall, all that matters is who won it this year. it holds true for the celtics, who havent won shit since the 80s as it does for the yankees.

i am absolutely ecstatic about this. the red sox were the best team in baseball heading into this season, and they are the best team at the end. it finally is nice for it to work out that way.

Yeah, it sure seemed like you were LETTING us win when we came back and made you have the biggest playoff collapse in history. Just think about that....worst collapse in playoff history, by your good ole Yankees.

Never again will we hear that god-damned 1918 chant, or the who's your daddy (cause we are your daddy right now, until you smack us back and beat us)...

Yankees= Paper Champions
Red Sox = Best TEAM in baseball, 2004 World Series Champions

Was worth staying upto 5am to see them win the World series and finally drop the jinx! it was a poor series tho for in terms of standard of play and excitment but whos cares they won.

Leave it to the Red Sox to actually get to the World Series and make it a boring, shitty dance.

Ha.

Congrats Boston - Philadelphia needs baseball excitement.

It's a shame they can't keep this team together. The list of free agents is long and key players will be lost:

Pedro (Yankees?)
Lowe (Yankees?)
Cabrera
Varitek

As a diehard Sox fan, i gotta respond to the sox threads, and talk about the team...that being said:

Vtek will be resigned, unless he asks for WAY too much, which doesnt seem likely given his character.
Cabrera is also a must-sign, and given that he spent his career in Montreal before this magical Series run, its a good bet he will resign for somewhere around the 7, 8 million a year mark...for only 3 years max. The Sox have two great SS prospects in the upper minors, and they think at least 1 will be ready for the 06 season

Lowe is a goner, after this postseason his price has been jacked up, Scott Boras is his agent, and we are not going to give him big money. After watching this guy for years, there is no way the Sox will give him a huge deal....way,way, too inconsisten. Remember, before the playoffs started Lowe wasnt even going to be in the rotation. It took mayhem in the Yankee series for him to even get a shot...which he definately took full advantage of, and someone is going to overpay him because of it.

Pedro could come back, but only for a big paycut (he made 17 mil this year). Hes on the downside of his career, and if he does want too much money, the Sox will go out and get Pavano, who has much more upside over the next few years.

This Sox team isnt going anywhere folks...the new owners aren't scared to open the checkbook, and the GM will always fill out a deep solid roster

Pedro will get the money, no doubt from a team like the Cards or Yankees. Lowe, I feel, may head to someone like the Angels.

Another team that may look to get some help are the Mets and Phillies. The Mets have been a mess and just want to make the playoffs, where anything can happen. The Phillies are trying to break the Braves run of division titles, and pitching can never hurt.

The crop is ripe this year. Where will Beltran go? Glaus? Radke? Ortiz? List goes on and on.

Ortiz isnt a free agent, we resigned him during the year...im assuming you were talking about David Ortiz that is

No, Russ Ortiz. Sorry about that.

The Cards are a mid-market team that is gonna be handcuffed because they signed Rolen and Pujols to monster deals. Anaheim is actually a place that Gammons and other pundits feel is the likely place Pedro will end up if he doesnt resign.

Lot of chatter that Beltran could end up with the Cubs, but he very well might resign too

The Cards may be a mid-market team, but they almost certainely made loads of cash by playing 8 post-season home games.

Its amazing. I didn't think they could do it but they did. Nomar was probably jinxing them the past couple years.

Also, Nomar gets a RING as well for being apart of the regular season team I believe.

I dont know if he gets a ring...but the team voted him a full playoff share, which was a nice gesture.

nomar doesnt get a ring, because he wasnt a part of the team at the end of the year. he does get a full share though, because the team voted it that way. very classy move.

as for the free agents, i think that varitek will definitely be back. i also think that pedro will be back. i think he likes playing in boston, and that he thrives on the atmosphere, and that that is worth something to him. you cant find that anywhere but boston and new york, and i dont think that he really wants to go to new york.

cabrera and lowe are probably gone, and to be honest, we dont need them that much. hanley ramirez should be ready in 2006, and he will do a very good job, very cheap. i worked for one of the sox farm teams when hanley was there, and he was by far the most impressive player i saw al season. just loads of talent, and while he had some maturity issues in the past, from what i understand he i over those issues. we only need a short term replacement at shortstop, not a long term solution, and we would have to give cabrera more money and more years than he is worth to the team. lowe has been incredibly valuable to the sox for a few years now, but he will get overpaid by someone, and we will not match a huge offer for him.

I think the Sox will make an effort to get Cabrera back for 2 years, possibly with an option for the 3rd. Especially if they can get him for 6 or 7 mil. Hanley is the talk of the board on SOSH, concerning minor leaguers, but what about next year? And it's tough to just pencil a guy in for 2 years from now...what if he isnt ready, or gets hurt.

I think Cabrera was a monster part of this team, and I hope he doesnt go somewhere else. He should be affordable, and he must LOVE it here after being stuck in Montreal for his whole career. I really think he's coming back.

to be honest i dont think that cabrera i going to be that affordable. i think we would be talking about 8 mil a year for three years at least, which really is a bit high.

i know that it is tough to bank on minor leaguers to step in at any specific point in the future, but the sox have four legitimate shortstop prospects waiting in the minors. now i know that a couple of them are a ways away, but having that many good options for the future suggests that we should go for a short term fix, and then if in 2 years we realize that none of the other guys will work out, then we go out and get a top free agent, or at least we get a great defensive guy.

i really believe that hanley is the real deal, especially because he has had to deal with some adversity on the way up, and he got by it. i have played pretty high level baseball, both with and against a number fo guys who were first round picks in the draft, and hanley is so far above any of those guys it just doesnt seem fair. he will make it in the bigs, i just hope that it is for us.

Let's say Cabrera goes, which I really hope doesn't happen, but let's say he does. Who do you think we will replace him with? Pokey? Or someone from another team?

omar vizquel, jose valentin and barry larkin are the three names that i ahve heard thrown around. i dont think larkin has much left in the tank, but the other two cold be valuable players on a very good team. all of them are veterans who know how to play the game, and vizqual and valentin both have excellent defensive reputations to go along with decent offensive skills.

julio lugo was also a name i heard thrown around, but i am not sure that the devil rays will let him go as a non tender guy.

if the sox had to use pokey as the everyday shortstop i think that would be a huge hole in the lineup,but with how good the rest of the roster is i think they might be able to overcome it. i wouldnt want to have to try though

Pedro wants nothing to do with being a #2 starter. Lets see, Atlanta, Dodgers, Yankees, the money will be elsewhere and I don't think the Sox have a #1 starter position available.

His career record in Boston was 117-37, :eek: .

i really hope that pedro is going to stick around, and fo rsome reason i think that he will, but if he doesnt i hope that his brilliance here doesntget lost.

as geoffm said, 117-37 is just absurd.

i dont think that atlanta will be on the list of suitors. they have had some serious cutbacks since ted turner got ousted and aol/time warner came in. i dont think that they can afford him. i could see pedro going back to the dodgers, unless he holds a grudge against them for trading them at te beginning of his career. they thought that there was no way that he could hold up for more than a couple of years, and while they were right in some regards, they were definitely wrong overall. the angels will also be suitors, but you have to wonder when the money is going to dry up out there. they have been spending like its going out of style, and they have a couple free agents they have to worry about themselves this offseason (glaus primarily).

as for the yankees, i am not sure that i see that as the best fit. pedro does not have many friends in their clubhouse, and sure everything would be water under the bridge once he joined the team (like it was for clemens), i am not sure that he has an interest in playing there. i believe that pedro is one of the smartest, most analytical athletes i have ever seen, and that he has continually dropped the possibility of going to the yankees as a scare tactic. i think it is just a bargaining chip, and that when the dust settles he will not sign with them.

when he told ortiz earlier in the year that boston was the best place for him to sign, i took that as a sign that pedro would also be back. that there woudl be a lot of posturing, but that in the end pedro would take some sort of hometown discount.

maybe i am just being naive because i dont want to see pedro in another uniform.

i just caught gammons on sportscenter, and he said that he feels that pedro will be coming back to boston. i hope that his instincts are right in this situation.

I just don't see Pedro being happy playing second fiddle to Schilling. Schilling is signed for 2 more years with an option for 2007, so he'll be doing that for at least 2 more years, when he is in the twilight of his career.

Everyone knows the Yankees need pitching, and have money, just seems like a logical fit to me.

i think that one of pedros quotes earlier this postseason sheds light on the number one versus number two starter thing.

he said that on the day he is pitching, he is number one, and that he doesnt care about the other days. i know that he is an extremely proud man, and that pride can make you do dumb things (not that signing with the yankees would be dumb for him), but i dont think that he has to be the clear cut ace.

There's more to it than that....You think Pedro would fit in, in the Yankee clubhouse? I sure don't. Nevermind the fact that most Yankee players hate him, Pedro is a character,(as were most of the Sox this year) and the Yankee players are just plain dull. Steinbrenner wouldnt even let Pedro keep those soul-glow locks of his if he signed there.

And to say he wouldn't be happy being second fiddle, didnt he seem happy this year? The guy was having the time of his life during these last couple months...

i'm a cubs fan, so i don't know how to feel about the sox winning. a part of me wants to be happy for them, but another part loathes them for leaving us as the only cursed. oh well, next year? :D

all three of my college roommates were cubs fans, so i understand what it feels lie for you guys. i am not sure the suffering is the same, as the cubs have basically been cellar dwellers and the sox have a history of getting close, but never going all the way.

i drove down to atlanta last year when the cubs were playing in the playoffs, and it was a very cool experience. one thing that is very similar about the two teams is that they have fans all over the place. for the game in atlanta there were at least 20k people in from all over the place who were there to cheer on the cubs.

i love my cubbies...hopefully they make some moves this off-season. i'm starting to enjoy this "contender" thing :D

i hope the cubs can get rid of sosa. he is such a phony.

the guy acts like he is just doing it for the fans, and that all he wants to do everyday is win. well, when he hits .250 on the year, and then throws a tantrum when he gets moved to sixth in th elineup, he shows his true colors. i dont think that the cubs will go anywhere with him still on the team. he just doesnt provide the type of leadership, and his production is slipping severely.

maybe the corked bats played a bigger role in his performance than we thought before.

I think Sosa came off the roids and that has led to his drop in numbers. That being said, the guy should still be able to reach the career 700 homer total, and probably place in 3rd on the all-time list behind Aaron and the freak Bonds. The problem with him is that nobody wants that big contract from a guy that, you said it, hit something like .260 this year and his homerun numbers have dropped off significantly since the 60 homer days.

I like Ramirez on the Cubs, that guy is just awesome. He is like a poor mans Albert Pujols, nothing to be ashamed of at all.

They chose to buy out Alou, but maybe they will re-sign him.

This is my 200th post, lets see if TP is awake :D.

sosa is a phony, and you really see it being a cub fan. he's such a little whiney baby, and he gets paid 17m a year. we're allowed to boo your ass if you're not performing, it's that simple -- we pay for your contract.

Ya, ya, ya, you know what, I don't feel for Cub fans at all. You know why? Because I'm a Leaf fan :( .

i think any hockey fan in general shouldnt have to feel the pain of other sports fans right now.

i really got into hockey when i was in college, and i absolutely love the game now. unfortunately for us bettman just said today that he doesnt expect there to be a season this year. very sad.

i'm a bruins fan, as you might have expected from my rooting interest in the pats and sox. last years playoff loss to the habs was tough, but thornton was injured and couldnt do anything that series. i was at the game when he got injured, and it was brutal. the capitals had a complete goon squad out there, with 4 guys on the team only known as fighters. they ad no skill at all, and thornton got hurt when he was hauled down from behind. im still bitter.

Well, the Bruins aren't going to be a very good team this year (if there is one), losing your best goal scorer isn't exactly going to move you up in the standings.

Players are having a meeting today, probably 5 minutes from my work. Nothing will come of it though, just a bunch of bs. I think there will be a season, but if there isn't, I'd estimate 6-8 teams will likely fold up.

yeah, the bruins have been pretty mediocre for a while, and very disappointing in the playoffs when they have had good teams.

just from things i have heard, i would really doubt thatthere will be a season. they will have to do something to make the league economically viable. th eowners got so greedy with expansion recently that they killed the game. there is absolutely no reason why there should be hockey teams in miami, tampa bay, dallas, phoenix, los angeles, etc. those cities havent seen snow in years, why should they have hockey teams? i know they have had some success, but it just doesnt make sense that there should be teams there, and that teams like the nordiques, whalers, etc either move or fold.

Massachusetts anyone?
 

Any others from Massachusetts out there?

I remember back when Larry Bird and the Celtics were the ons to watch. It's funny because baseball and football used to be the unpopular sports around here... and now its quite the opposite, with basketball and soccer being out worst teams.

Marlborough here (Metrowest). :)

White sox cursed
 

I believe the white sox are cursed too, not just the cubs...

I think the Cubs will be the next "cursed" team to win it all. They have a great core of key players, some great young pitchers, and a great farm system. The two things they really need to do are, 1. get out from under Sammy Sosa's contract, he's getting worse by the year, and could possibly be the most overpaid player in baseball in terms of salary to performance by the end of his contract, and 2. get rid of Dusty Baker, he's a terrible manager and will ruin the arms of those young pitchers, it's no coincidence that both Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, and Matt Clement all had injury problems this year after the workload Baker gave them last year. It would be a shame if Prior's potentially Hall of Fame caliber career is cut short or sidetracked because of injuries caused by overuse this early in his career.

i think dusty baker is a good manager, but i would like to see him use less of the young guns. however, the bullpen he had the last two years was absolutely atrocious. whenever dusty went to the pen and they blew it... everyone says "why take out starting pitcher X he was doing great." but if he leaves them in for more than 100 pitches he gets criticized for that too....double edged blade :[

You know, I've always felt that if your best guy is on the mound, than you have to disregard the lefty-lefty or righty-righty matchups and just go with him. It makes no rational sense to bring in someone to pitch just because he is a lefty and there is a lefty at bat. Stick with your best until he is clearly ineffective, then make the move.

there is some merit to that argument, but, you have to make sure you also look at the numbers -- they don't lie. sometimes there is a decent hitter against a dominant pitcher, and that hitter just happens to have the pitchers number his entire career for whatever reason. that's what makes managing so tough and underated.

nice to see the boroughs being represented.

i currently live in northboro, and went to algonquin.

i think that dusty baker is the most overrated manager in the game. he rides the talent that he has, but he never adds anything to the talent by means of strategy or good game decisions. he is awful with a pitching staff, and probably always will be. if he didnt have guys like bonds, schmidt, prior, wood, etc on his teams, he wouldnt have anywhere near the reputation that he does today.

i think that this strategy is for the most part ridiculously inefficient, and the only thing that it accomplishes is the need for 11 man pitching staffs. the platoon splits of some batters makes it a winning situation to make the pitching change at times, but for the most part the differences are unimportant, and all they do is burn through the bullpen.

look at a bullpen like the yankees this year. did anyone but yankees fans really fear felix heredia coming into the game? and yet he has a major league job only because he is a lefthander reliever. the same goes for john franco, mike myers, jesse orosco, etc. sometimes they are valuable to a team, but they are really only valuable to the very best teams, and even then their value is only maximized in the post season, where the short series give greater importance to every out.

The matchups are beneficial if you have a lefty who is actually really tough on LHB. Mike Myers is pretty good, as was Scott Sauerbeck before he got injured, Eddie Guardado is another. But more often than not managers just throw the lefty out there because they want a lefty/lefty match up. Not all left handed pitchers are abnormally tough on lefties, just from watching the Red Sox I can tell you Alan Embree is equally as tough against lefties and righties. Felix Heredia is just plain bad, he's a terrible example of a LOOGY, the only reason he was in the majors this year was because he was under contract and knows how to throw a baseball in the general direction at home plate, which was enough to earn you a spot in the Yankee bullpen this year. ;)

Side note: I am still giddy about winning the series...and I also think we will have an edge over the Yankees for the next few years. The Yanks did a wonderful job of depleting their farm system, while ours is one of the best in the game. The Yanks couldnt get Randy Johnson by trade because they had nothing to offer.

Steinbrenner's only option to really strengthen his team is through free angency, and while i would never put some imaginary cap on what he would spend, he certainly does have a lot of money already tied up....jeter arod vasquez and mussina together make over 75 million each per year.

I love the Red Sox players, the front office, everything about the organization....maybe 40 years from now we'll be talking about the curse of AROD as the Red Sox win yet again

the yankees have something like 170 million tied up in 16 players under contract next year, and then 130 for about ten players in 2006.

dont forget giambis monster contract. arod, jeter, mussina and giambi are all making about 20 mill for the next couple of years, bernie is over 12 mill, sheffield is over 10, vazquez makes good money, etc. they will actually have to bump their payroll well over 200 mill in order to make their team significantly better, just because their system is so bare. their onyl good prospects are essentially still in A-ball.

yes, that does make me feel good inside. I wonder if that is a by-product of George taking over more control....because Cashman did a great job building that system over the years