CONGRATS TO THE CHOWD NATION!!!

Red Sox Nation rejoice!!

First thing….I do not believe in “The Curse”. I’ve stated my case on that fact before [Why Care About The Red Sox?].  But, going this long without a title….then winning one…is quite a magical thing. And no matter if it is your first title in 86 years or your second in three years [Patriots fans]….a title is special no matter what.

It wasn’t just the fact that the Sox won the World Series….it is how they did in. In effect, they swept their three playoff opponents. They completely annihilated the Anaheim Angels [I should know, I drew the Halos in our playoff pool]. Then, they did the impossible…..coming back from down 0-3 to win the ALCS against the hated New York Yankees. For the finale, they made the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals into a 4-day preparation to the clinching Game 4...in which Chowd Nation got to finally let loose.

In that run, Terry Francona….yeah the guy that kept the Phillies in a funk….beat fellow managers Mike Scocia, Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa. All three of those guys own World Series rings. The Angels made a big off season splash with the signing of Bartolo Colon and Vlad Gurerrero. The Yanks traded for A-Rod and signed Gary Sheffield. The Cards dealt for Rolen last year and Larry Walker this year. But, it was Boston who got Curt Schilling [who miraculously won Game 6 of the ALCS and Game 2 of the World Series] and Folke [who closed out all for Series games] that turned out to be the biggest moves.

Not just that. But they waived Manny Ramirez. All 29 other teams had their chance to nab him….and none did. So he stayed a Red Sock, won the World Series MVP and possibly the regular season MVP award. They also dealt Nomar Garciaparra for Orlando Cabrera which helped shore up their defense and provided some offense as well. They also relied on pitchers Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe, who are in their final years of their contracts. You had The Passion Of The Damon in center field. This was a self proclaimed team of “idiots”.

Maybe that attitude worked. The amazing thing about idiots is they have no idea what’s going on around them. And that was a good thing for the BoSox. I mean, the team butchered up the field with errors all season [and postseason] long. They made the easy play hard…then a hard play easy. Going into the year, this was to be the season the Red Sox passed the Yankees….then the Yankees pulled away with the division again. Then, the team made that AMAZING comeback against the Yankees in the ALCS. Then that World Series dominance. All that with the hopes and dreams and “curses” hovering above them.

I’m not a Red Sox fan. In fact, baseball fans who don’t like the Red Sox were on the fence of rooting for them or not. I found myself rooting for them to win….just to see if Y2K would crash the computers, hell freezes over or to see pigs flying around. But then, it would have been funny to see them lose again. No offense, Chowds….but Charlie Brown still has never kicked the football

I will say this…after watching this post season, I GREATLY ADMIRE the Chowd Nation. These fans believed in their team even when it didn’t look good for them. They’ve supported their team when Aaron Boone’s knock sailed over the fence and when Folke tossed that ball to 1st base. I was amazed to see how many of them were in St. Louis cheering the team on.

You guys have much to be proud of. Celebrate this team. Bad history aside, this team was truly a memorable team. Adding back the history, they spit in its face.

Again, congrats!