World Series Takeaways: What did we Learn from the 2013 Fall Classic?
Photo?courtesy of Wikipedia.
BOSTON?All things considered, the 2013 World Series went exactly the way it should have. Statistically, everything matched well with expectation and in the end, the series came down to who was playing a better overall game at the time.
The Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals shared Major League Baseball’s best record during the regular season: 97-65, a .599 winning percentage. So, in retrospect, the fact that they both ended up in the World Series is not the least bit surprising according to the numbers.
Funnily enough, the last time the Red Sox won the World Series, they were also tied for the best record in baseball at the end of the regular season (with the Cleveland Indians).
Also, perhaps unsurprisingly to those who watched the series, David “Big Papi” Ortiz came away with MVP honors joining Manny Ramirez (2004) and Mike Lowell (2007) as the only other Red Sox player to win the award since its inception in 1955.
Chevrolet gave Ortiz a free car for his honors. He didn’t look like he cared. What’s a car to a multi-million-dollar-earning athlete?
Big Papi was more interested in being handed the microphone from on-field reporter and post-game MC Erin Andrews. To share the win with the city of Boston and his teammates was his main focus, not a free car, reminding us that?sports are much much more than we may take them for.
We can walk away from the 2013 World Series like we walk away from most movies: we know the good guy won.
Boston was devastated by the Boston Marathon bombings in April of this year. The event shook the country, but before the Red Sox took the field for their first home game since the bombings, Ortiz made it known that the city was going to be strong and that no one was going to “dictate our freedom.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUQUFm2icyQ
Video courtesy of Youtube. Warning: NSFW.
More of a declaration than a speech, Papi embodied the pride of Boston and by winning the World Series this year, the Sox only made the story of courage and fortitude that much more tangible.
It culminated in the parade this Saturday when the caravan of floats and trucks carried Red Sox personnel and players through Boylston, past the sites of the Boston Marathon bombings and through the race’s finish line that thousands were not able to cross that day.
The Red Sox are the real-life comeback kids, the Cinderella team. In 2012 they suffered one of the franchise’s worst seasons, finishing dead-least in the AL East division with a 69-93 record. But this year, they surprised everyone,?except maybe themselves, by going all the way.
As I watched Cardinals’ second baseman Matt Carpenter swing through Koji Uehara’s 81-mph splitter, I saw two comparable reactions: those of the Sox players and those of my Boston friends watching the game beside me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp00-65cd7g
Video courtesy of Youtube.?Skip to 2:23 for final pitch/celebration.
As Carpenter’s at-bat reached a 2-2 count, Ortiz was in the dugout strapping on his ski goggles and helmet in preparation for the seemingly inevitable champagne shower celebration to come. At the same time my friend Jack was compulsively shaking his right leg up and down, while my friend Steve was glued to every millisecond of the action, repeatedly telling me to “shut up” even if no one was saying anything.
Then, as catcher David Ross ripped off his face mask and embraced Uehara in celebration, Jack gave Steve a huge bear hug. Now, I’m not a Boston native like these two guys, but rather a Boston transplant, yet I found myself very happy for the city, the team and its fans.
It was the first World Series-clinching game won at Fenway Park since 1918. It was a long time coming, but now the city of Boston should be able to confidently wave bye-bye to any?alleged curses. They broke the “curse” in 2004, but something about doing it in Boston, within the walls of Fenway, in front of the fans, puts the stamp on the proverbial envelope of success.