This Time, BoSox Bulldoze Their Way to Title
The Red Sox beat the Rockies last night to capture a second title in four years.
DENVER -- Oct. 29, 2007— -- It's never an easy thing to comprehend when the universe changes before your eyes.
You're never sure why. You're never sure how. And normally, you're never sure when.
But if anyone asks, you can tell them you saw it all unfold on the last Sunday night in October, in a scenic Colorado ballpark nestled between the mountain peaks.
You didn't just see the Boston Red Sox win the World Series. You didn't just see the Red Sox sweep the World Series. You saw something bigger, something deeper, something historic.
This wasn't 2004. That's ancient history now. This wasn't 86 years of torment and misery, curses and ghosts, being washed away by events taking place on a baseball field. This was different. Very different. Couldn't have been more different.
This is a franchise that has turned life as we used to know it upside down. This is no longer a team defined by all the years it didn't win. This is a team carving a whole new niche in the sporting universe.
Make no mistake. The Red Sox now are one of baseball's powerhouse franchises. And what they just did -- in this World Series, in this October and especially in the past week and a half -- made that 100 percent official.
"It's a different organization now," Curt Schilling said after the 4-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies that completed this sweep and this journey. "It's different. Nobody feels sorry for us anymore. And they shouldn't. We're not the little guy on the block anymore. We're not David to Goliath. Payrollwise, we're up there with anybody now. But it's about a lot more than payroll. They built this franchise to last. And it's been a privilege to watch it take off."
Until Sunday, the only franchise in the history of this sport that ever swept two World Series in four seasons was the one, the only New York Yankees (who, of course, had done that four times).
But now the Yankees have company. Now the 2004 and 2007 Red Sox have moved in right beside them, leaving their stamp on their sport and its rich postseason history.
And this team stampeded up that mountainside in a way no team ever has. Well, not since baseball expanded its postseason in 1969, at least.
This team outscored the Los Angeles Angels, the Cleveland Indians and the Rockies by a combined score of 99-46 -- the greatest October run differential in postseason history.
These Red Sox finished that run by outscoring the Rockies 29-10 in this World Series -- the greatest World Series run differential in history.
On a night when principal owner John Henry was moved to say, "We're not just a bunch of stat geeks," the Red Sox took possession of one of their favorite stats of all. Nothing measures domination like run differential. So those numbers -- plus-53 and plus-19 -- tell you just how thunderously this team imposed its will on all its victims.
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